ISSUE 181 | August 2010

A D ungeons & D rag ons ® Roleplaying Ga me Supplement

 Co n t e n t s

3 Editorial
4 The Vault of Darom Madar 65 The Shrine of the Sea Demon
By Steve Winter
By Aeryn “Blackdirge” Rudel By Richard L. Baker Nothing is quite as important as a quality DM to the
success of your campaign ... or to this hobby in general.
House Madar was wiped out generations ago by The sea demon’s shrine isn’t underwater ... yet.
its commercial rivals. It didn’t go down without a But watch out when the tide comes in, because it
fight, however, and its wealth was never recovered. comes in fast. An encounter site for characters of 87 Save My Ga me
Legend holds that it’s entombed somewhere in the any level. By Stephen Radney-MacFarland
Tablelands. A Dungeons & Dragons adventure Stephen offers valuable tips and advice that can help keep
for 1st-level characters. your campaign running smoothly.
70 Eye on Dark Sun
By Rodney Thompson 91 Dungeoncr af t
38 Hero’s Bat tle: Elminster By James Wyatt
The dune trader Mar Juk-Adan has a reputation for
By Chris Sims providing whatever you desire, no matter what it is The Aquela campaign is progressing smoothly. Here are
the latest developments.
Elminster has been driven mad by the spellplague and where--or when--it comes from.
and the death of his beloved Simbul, and in
his rage and anguish, he’s laying waste to the
countryside. Someone needs to stop him, but it 74 Eye on the Realms
won’t be easy. A dangerous encounter for high By Ed Greenwood
paragon or low epic characters.
The circle of fangs is an enigmatic magic device
of unknown origin. Its purpose is clear, but who
43 Chaos Scar: made it?
The Sl aver’s Stone
On the Cover
By Robert J. Schwalb 77 E xplore Taer Lian Doresh Illustration by Daarken
Rescuers are hot on the trail of villagers who By Jeff LaSala
have been abducted by slavers when a horrible Taer Lian Doresh is a city out of myths where
choice is forced on them. “The Slaver’s Stone” is a ancient minds contemplate revenge against the
Dungeons & Dragons adventure for 5th-level world outside, hope is leached away by fear, and
characters. nightmares are clothed in f lesh.

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 edit o rial
181
Du ngeon

Editor-in-Chief
A u g u s t 2 010

Steve Winter
Treasure a Good DM
Senior Art Director Jon Schindehette

Web Production Bart Carroll

The Dungeon Master makes or breaks a campaign. That’s why it behooves every top-notch DM out there—
Contributing Authors Richard Baker, I don’t think that’s a shocking statement. The DM isn’t and you know who you are, even if you’re too modest and
Ed Greenwood, Jeff LaSala, the only factor, of course, in whether a campaign succeeds self-effacing to admit it openly—to act as mentors to those
Stephen ­Radney-MacFarland, and is enjoyable for everyone involved. Anyone, DM or players who show the knack. Don’t assume that anyone
Aeryn “Blackdirge” Rudel, Robert players, can ruin a campaign by being rude, inattentive, can just pick this up because it comes naturally to you.
J. Schwalb, Chris Sims, Rodney disruptive, or by not showing up. Players by themselves, 4E encourages DMs to apportion some of the campaign
Thompson however, can’t make a campaign excellent. They can and management duties among players. That’s a good idea not
must contribute, but when the dice truly hit the table, just because it lightens the DM’s load but because it lets
Developers Jeremy Crawford,
excellence is in the hands of the DM. No matter how good players dip their toes into the DM’s pool. What better way
Stephen Schubert, Greg Bilsland
a team of players might be, it can’t cover for a weak DM, is there to learn the skills of a DM than by picking them
Editor Miranda Horner but a strong DM is a leader who can make up for and over- up one at a time? Some possibilities include:
Cover Artist come a few weak players.
Daarken F If a player has a deft hand at keeping track of the party’s
It’s no surprise that a lot of DMs don’t cut the mustard.
Contributing Artists travels and escapades, put him in charge of recording
Alexey Aparin, Eric Belisle, Chris Some were thrust into the position because no one else
the world’s history, or even of creating some of it.
Burdett, William O’Connor, wanted it or because they owned the rules. Some are too
F If a player has a knack for coming up with interesting
Craig J. Spearing young and immature (or just immature). The really bad
characters, arrange some scenes where her character
ones are power trippers, control freaks, pedants, bores, pas-
Cartographers Sean Macdonald, isn’t present so she can take over the role of a few NPCs
sive-aggressive backbiters, or possibly worst of all, bullies.
Mike Schley encountered in the street, a shop, or a tavern.
They all want to be excellent DMs, I’m sure. The
Publishing Production F If a player is an excellent tactician, find an opportunity
Angelika Lokotz, Erin Dorries, fact is, it’s a hard job. DMing demands writing exciting
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those things. The trick is finding the person who can do all
D&D Insider designing an adventure, or just outlining one. The short
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Director of RPG R&D who can paint pictures, fix cars, cook, and throw a football.
Bill Slavicsek run it for the group—or take a night off from behind the
If you’ve played with a really sterling DM, you know
screen and let this player run it.
that it’s a tough act to follow. They set the bar high, and
Special Thanks that in itself is imposing. Who wants to take the chair Every DM’s ideal should be to graduate at least one
behind the screen after the world’s best DM vacates it? person, if not more, from the rank of player to Dungeon
Richard Baker, Michele Carter, Jennifer Clarke Wilkes, Bruce R.
We like to think that every DUNGEONS & DRAG- Master. If you were lucky, someone showed you the way.
Cordell, Peter Lee, Mike Mearls, Kim Mohan, Cal Moore, Stephen
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ONS player is an up-and-coming DM. They learn from The time to pass on the favor is always now.
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techniques; anyone can learn to do something poorly. The
opposite is not true; observing an excellent DM will not,
by itself, make you one.
 A Dark Sun adventure for
five 1st-level characters that
takes place in the searing
Tablelands of Athas and
challenges the characters to
find an ancient treasure lost
in this vast desert.

However, the characters are

not alone in seeking the
long-lost fortune!

the
Vault of
Darom Madar
By Aeryn “Blackdirge” Rudel
illustration by Daarken and Eric Belisle
TM & © 2010 Wizards of the Coast LLC All rights reserved.

A u g u s t 2 010 | D u n g e o n 181
4

The Vault of Darom Madar is a Dark Sun adventure for
five 1st-level characters. It takes place in the Table-
lands beyond the alluvial sand wastes. The adventure
challenges the characters to find an ancient treasure
lost somewhere in the vast desert. The characters,
however, are not the only group seeking to uncover
the long-lost fortune, so the heroes must not only find
the treasure but return safely with it to the gates of
Tyr. The Vault of Darom Madar provides enough experi-
ence to take characters to 3rd level at the adventure’s
conclusion.
Background
There is bitter and often bloody rivalry between the
great merchant houses plying their trades within the
vast city states of the Tyr region. The often unscru-
pulous members of these hereditary merchant
consortiums sell anything and everything from food,
water, and other survival essentials to humanoid
slaves fit for serving in a noble estate or fighting and
dying in the arena.
Occasionally, two merchant houses become suc-
cessful and wealthy selling the same goods. This
usually leads to a bloody war between houses for
control of the commodity in question. So it was centu-
ries ago with houses Madar and Tsalaxa. Both houses
controlled the majority of the livestock trade in the
Tablelands, where they dealt in the finest specimens
of erdlu, kank, and mekillot. House Madar, led by the
clever and even-tempered Darom Madar, was content
to share the marketplace with their primary com-
petitor. Virinus Tsalaxa, a twisted defiler and elder
of House Tsalaxa, was not about to share the wealth
with anyone.
Determined to control the livestock trade abso-
lutely, House Tsalaxa used a large portion of its
considerable wealth to hire skilled assassins. House
Madar was completely unprepared for such aggres-
sion, and by the time it managed to organize even a
semblance of defense, half their number had been
methodically exterminated. By destroying House
Madar, Virinus Tsalaxa eliminated his sole competi-
tion in the livestock trade. He hoped to go beyond
that and gain control of House Madar’s considerable
wealth.
Even though Darom Madar could not prevent Viri-
nus from accomplishing his first goal, the leader of
House Madar was dead set on preventing his villain-
ous rival from accomplishing the second.
Mobilizing what remained of his house, Darom
Madar had every bit of material wealth taken from
the Madar Estate and hidden in a deep vault in the
Canyon of Guthay. Soon after, Tsalaxa assassins
killed Darom Madar and everyone else of his house,
and his line ended. Knowledge of the secret treasure
vault’s location in the Canyon of Guthay died with
House Madar and has remained a secret over the
centuries … until now, that is.
Synopsis
The Vault of Darom Madar begins just after Sand Raid-
ers, the short adventure provided in the Dark Sun
Campaign Setting, ends. This adventure consists of
three parts. By the end of the third act, the charac-
ters should have earned enough experience to reach
3rd level.
The Vault of Darom Madar
The adventure begins in Altaruk. After success-
fully retrieving the valuable cargo for Rhotan Vor,
head of the Wavir tradepost in Altaruk, the char-
acters are given the opportunity to search for the
lost treasure of House Madar. The scant clues of the
treasure’s location point to the Canyon of Guthay, a
massive rift on the edge of the Great Alluvial Sand
Wastes. More clues to the treasure’s whereabouts and
information about the canyon can be found at Silver
Spring but must be pried from the tight-lipped elves
who guard that place. The trek to Silver Springs takes
the characters across the Tablelands and pits them
against the desert’s many dangers, including a band
of mysterious assassins far more determined than
simple desert raiders.
The second part of the adventure sends the
characters into the Canyon of Guthay armed with
information from the elves or only their own brav-
ery. The Canyon of Guthay is a dark and forlorn
place riddled with shallow, monster-infested caverns
which hold many dangers for the characters. One of
Guthay’s caverns holds the lost vault of Darom Madar,
a place that is half treasure vault and half mausoleum.
Here the characters must battle what remains of
House Madar itself–undead horrors animated by cen-
turies-old hatred–defeat a number of ghoulish traps,
and finally win their way into the treasure vault.
The last part of the adventure challenges the
treasure-laden characters to make the arduous trip
across the Alluvial Sand Wastes to the great city of
Tyr. During the journey, the characters are beset by
monstrous horrors native to the Athasian wilds and
another group of mysterious assassins who are even-
tually revealed to be operatives of House Tsalaxa,
House Madar’s ancient enemy.
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 The Vault of Darom Madar

Hooks Rhotan asks the characters to search the Canyon The characters can try to decipher the elven code
of Guthay and ascertain if the vault exists. If it does, and read the message if they choose. In fact, doing so
There is really only one primary hook in this adven-
it undoubtedly holds more wealth than the charac- can give them an edge when negotiating with Tora-
ture, and it revolves around the Wavir trademaster
ters can hope to carry away themselves. Therefore, mund in Silver Spring.
Rhotan Vor. While the characters are in Altaruk,
Rhotan offers the characters their pick of any treasure Quest XP: 250 (minor quest) deliver Iseel’s mes-
Rhotan Vor approaches them with a proposition that
the vault may contain plus a 10 percent share once sage to Toramund.
could make them very wealthy. Impressed with the
the remainder of the goods and artifacts are sold in
skill the characters displayed in locating and recover-
Tyr, Rhotan’s next destination. Cracking the
ing the missing Wavir wagon and its goods, Rhotan
Rhotan and his caravan travel with the characters, Code Skill Challenge
believes the heroes are up for a real challenge.
although they do not aid the characters in combat. Level: 1 (XP 200)
Although this is the primary motivation for the
Rhotan and his men will not enter the Canyon of Complexity: 2 (requires 6 successes before 3 failures)
characters, a number of minor hooks described
Guthay until the characters have found the vault and Primary Skills: Perception, Thievery.
below can give the characters more reason to travel
cleared any threats to their safety. Perception (DC 12; 1 hour per attempt; 1 success,
with Rhotan Vor and seek out the treasure of Darom
Quest XP: 625 (major quest) finding the vault of no maximum): Your keen eyes and mind make it easy
Madar. You can use one or both of the minor hooks,
Darom Madar. to spot patterns and puzzle out a portion of the elven
each corresponding to minor quests, to make the
code.
search for House Madar’s lost treasure even more
Minor Quest 1: Elven Thievery (DC 12; 1 hour per attempt; 1 success, no
compelling.
Relations maximum): You’re no stranger to secret messages and
Primary Quest: Lost Treasure The first leg of the adventure takes the characters cyphers, even those of the elves.
across the Tablelands to the oasis of Silver Springs. Secondary Skills: Insight, Nature, Language
Rhotan has recently come into possession of some
This oasis has long been guarded by the Silver Hand Insight (DC 17; 1 hour per attempt, no successes,
very valuable information. In Balic, he encountered
elves led by their chieftain Toramund. 3 maximum): You are adept at detecting suggested
a drunken human in a seedy tavern who claimed to
While in Altaruk, the characters are approached meanings, and although there is no speaker pres-
be a descendant of Darom Madar, the last elder of the
by an elven woman named Iseel who claims to be a ent, some of this skill translates to the written word.
long-dead Madar merchant house. In addition, the
relative of the fearsome Silver Hand chieftain. She You grant a +2 bonus to one ally’s next Perception or
man claimed to know the location of Darom Madar’s
says she has information about the chieftain’s son but Thievery check made as part of this skill challenge.
treasure vault, which he offered to Rhotan for the
refuses to tell the characters what this information Nature (DC 17; 1 hour per attempt, no successes,
sum of 30 gp. Rhotan is no fool, but 30 gp seemed a
entails. Iseel asks the characters to deliver a message 3 maximum): Elven code often includes metaphors
small price to pay for what could be the location of
to Toramund. The message is written in an elven code relating to the natural world, your knowledge of
one of the greatest lost treasures of Athas.
that is nearly impossible to crack. If the characters which allows you to pick up on subtle clues. You grant
Although the man did not know the exact location
agree to deliver the message, Iseel pays them 10 gp a +2 bonus to one ally’s next Perception or Thievery
of the treasure vault, he told Rhotan that it lay within
and tells them her brother Isann, a trader at Silver check made as part of this skill challenge.
the Canyon of Guthay near the alluvial sand wastes
Springs, will pay them a further 10 gp and one day’s Language (Special, no successes):
in the Tablelands east of Tyr. The vault is rumored
worth of food and water per character when they If no one in the group speaks Elven, all skill checks
to contain vast wealth, from metal coins, armor, and
complete the task. made in this encounter receive a -1 penalty. If the
weapons to priceless artifacts dating from Athas’
entire group speaks elven, all skill checks receive a
more verdant past.
+1 bonus.

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6

Success: The characters decipher the message,
which reads:
Toramund, your son is in grave danger. His criminal
activities in Tyr have drawn the attention of the
Toothcutters, and they have little patience with freelance
thieves. I know you have not spoken with Ravee in many
years, but if you do nothing, he is certainly doomed.
This information gives the characters a valuable
bargaining chip when dealing with Toramund in the
“Negotiating with Toramund” skill challenge (See
Encounter 1-3: An Audience with Toramund).
Failure: The characters fail to decipher the mes-
sage. If they achieved more than two successes before
failing at the challenge, then tell them that they were
able to make out some of it but not all. From what they
can gather, someone named Ravee has been killed by
the Toothcutters, but they can’t determine why or who
Ravee was. This is not true, of course, and using this
information in the “Negotiating with Toramund” skill
challenge can have disastrous results (See Encounter
1-3: An Audience with Toramund).
Minor Quest 2: Crimson Sand
Bandits are a constant danger on the trade routes
between the various pockets of civilization in the
Tablelands. These bandits strike mercilessly and slay
entire caravans for the valuables and water they carry.
In Altaruk, a bounty has been posted for a particu-
larly vicious gang of bandits, the Crimson Vipers, who
have taken up residence at an oasis between the Alta-
ruk and Silver Spring. A reward of 50 gp is offered to
any who kill the bandits or drive them from the oasis.
The reward can be claimed by delivering proof of the
deed to Arisphistaneles in Altaruk or to Chief Tora-
mund in Silver Springs. The bandits wind crimson
sashes around their waists as a badge.
Quest XP: 250 (minor quest) for slaying the Crim-
son Vipers.
Getting Ready to Play
In addition to familiarizing yourself with the monster
stat blocks and maps in The Vault of Darom Madar, you
should read up on the Tablelands and the Great Allu-
vial Sand Wastes in the Dark Sun Campaign Setting.
Your players may have questions about these regions
and their inhabitants. The Dark Sun Campaign Setting
offers a wealth of information on both regions, and
the Dark Sun Creature Catalog details dozens of mon-
sters and other foes native to the areas.
Treasure Preparation
The following treasure parcels are available in The
Vault of Darom Madar.
Treasure parcels
Parcel Location Contents
1 Crimson Oasis Two potion fruits of
healing + 80 gp
2 Wasteland One level 2 magic
Assassins item
3 Cavern of One level 4 magic where in the Tablelands before the destruction of his
Eternal Conflict item
4 Crypt of Sorrow One 250 gp art location of the treasure–if it ever even existed–is lost
object + 80 gp
5 The Treasure of Special
Darom Madar (See Encounter)
6 Assassin Ambush 80 gp + 1 survival
day of food and
water per character
7 Silken Surprise Three potion fruits
of healing
8 The Terror One level 6
of Tsalaxa magic item
The Vault of Darom Madar
In addition to the treasure parcels listed above, feel
free to award treasure parcels in the optional combat
encounters presented throughout this adventure. See
the Dark Sun Campaign Setting for details on Athas-
specific treasures.
What the
Characters Know
Before the characters set out to find the treasure of
House Madar, you can tell them what they know
about the fallen merchant house and its bitter rivalry
with House Tsalaxa. A character knows the following
with a successful skill check.
History DC 6: House Madar was once a suc-
cessful merchant operation involved in the livestock
trade. It was crushed in a trade war against its rival,
House Tsalaxa, over a hundred years ago. House
Tsalaxa is still an active merchant house and has all
but cornered the livestock trade in the Tablelands.
History DC 12: House Madar was not crushed
by competition but wiped out by hired assassins in
the pay of House Tsalaxa. It is rumored that the head
of House Madar, Darom, hid their vast wealth some-
house was complete. With no living descendants, the
to time.
History DC 18: A dark legend states that many
House Madar elders, including Darom Madar him-
self, were sealed into a hidden vault along with the
treasure. The legend further states that Darom and
those buried with him stand eternal vigil against any
who would defile their tomb.
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 The Vault of Darom Madar

Rhotan’s Caravan This part of the adventure features two unavoid- Across the Tablelands Skill
Rhotan’s caravan consists of three sand skiffs (see the
able combat encounters and three others that the Challenge
characters can avoid if they are careful. Run the Level: 1 (XP 100)
Dark Sun Campaign Setting for more details on these
“Across the Tablelands” skill challenge between each Complexity: 1 (requires 4 successes before 3
vehicles). Rhotan’s group consists of himself, two sand
of the two set encounters. Failing the skill challenge failures)
skiff pilots, and six deckhands (two per sand skiff ).
places environmental obstacles and more combat Primary Skills: Endurance, Perception, Stealth
Rhotan pilots one of the skiffs himself.
encounters in the caravan’s way to drain resources Special: Success in the skill challenge requires 4
Rhotan and his crew are not warriors; they expect
and leave them less prepared for the next combat successful primary skill checks. Each of the three pri-
the characters to do all the fighting (although this fact
encounter. You will run the skill challenge a total of mary skills must be used at least once, in any order,
might change; see “Treasure Chamber” for alterna-
three times, in this sequence: before any of them can be attempted a second time.
tives). In fact, for the first leg of the adventure, the
trek to Silver Spring, Rhotan expects the characters After that, they can be used in any mix and order the
1. Caravan leaves Altaruk players choose.
to scout a full day ahead and deal with whatever
2. “Across the Tablelands” skill challenge Endurance (DC 10, group check; 1 success): Your
danger the desert presents before the caravan can run
3. Encounter 1-1: Crimson Oasis group is tough enough to survive even the relentless
afoul of it. In addition, the caravan does not enter the
4. “Across the Tablelands” Skill Challenge heat of the Athasian sun.
Canyon of Guthay until the characters have found the
5. Encounter 1-2: Wasteland Assassins Perception (DC 10, group check; 1 success): Keen
vault of Darom Madar and given the all clear.
6. “Across the Tablelands” Skill Challenge eyes and direction sense keep you headed in the right
In the third act of the adventure, things change
7. Caravan arrives in Silver Springs direction.
a bit. Laden with treasure, Rhotan keeps the heroes
close to the caravan on the journey to Tyr. The char- Stealth (DC 10, group check; 1 success): Dangers
The primary skill checks in this challenge are group abound in the Athasian wilderness, but they can be
acters must not only defend themselves from the
skill checks. If at least half of the characters suc- avoided if your group is quick and quiet.
dangers of the Athasian wilderness, they must ensure
ceed on their rolls in a group skill check, the party Secondary Skills: Bluff, Heal, Nature
that Rhotan and his crew survive.
earns 1 success in that primary skill. Secondary skill Special: If a primary skill check earns a failure for
checks are attempted individually, by one character the group, then one character can use one of these
The Great Road in the group once per group skill check. In addition, secondary skills in an attempt to convert that failure
the characters must earn at least one success on all into a success.
Before the characters leave Altaruk, Rhotan Vor
three primary group skill checks to complete the skill Bluff (DC 13; 0 successes, 1 attempt per primary
informs them that the elven chieftain Toramund at
challenge. skill group check): By creating a diversion that keeps
Silver Springs may have valuable information about
The length of time involved in this trip is left inten- hostile humanoids and monsters from noticing your
the Canyon of Guthay. In addition, Silver Springs is
tionally vague. You should decide how long you want group, you convert a single character’s failed Stealth
an excellent place to stop and resupply. There are
the trip to the canyon to take based on the pacing of check into a success as part of the Stealth primary
many dangers between Altaruk and Silver Spring,
your game and where you decide to place the Canyon group skill check.
however.
of Guthay on your campaign map. Heal (DC 10; 0 successes, 1 attempt per primary
skill group check): By treating the emerging symp-
toms of heat exhaustion and sun sickness before they
become debilitating, you convert a single character’s

A u g u s t 2 010 | D u n g e o n 181
8

failed Endurance check into a success as part of the
Endurance primary group skill check.
Nature (DC 13; 0 successes, 1 attempt per primary
skill group check): By carefully navigating the harsh
Athasian wilderness and avoiding its worst flora and
fauna, you convert a single character’s failed Percep-
tion check into a success as part of the Perception
primary group skill check.
Success: The characters reach the next encounter
unharmed and intact. They have had ample time to
rest and have maximum hit points and all powers
available to them.
Failure: Group failure (not individual failure) at a
primary skill check has the following results.
Endurance: Each time the group as a whole fails at
this skill check, every character who failed the Endur-
ance check individually is exposed to sun sickness
(Dark Sun Campaign Setting page 199).
Perception: Each time the group as a whole fails
at this skill check, every character who failed the
Perception check individually gains a cumulative -1
penalty to all subsequent Perception checks made as
part of this skill challenge.
Stealth: If the group as a whole fails at this skill
check, they have a combat encounter with one of the
desert’s many dangerous inhabitants. Choose and run
one of the following optional encounters.
Optional Encounters
These encounters can be run when the characters
fail the Stealth group challenge in the “Across the
Tablelands” skill challenge. Assemble a typical desert
battlefield quickly with the Desert of Athas Dungeon
Tiles or sketch one on your battlemat. It should
include sandy stretches and rocks but little in the way
of vegetation or water.
Although these encounters are designed to be part
of the skill challenge, don’t feel obligated to run them
if the characters are already having a tough enough
time with the two planned encounters or you want to
move things quickly to Guthay Canyon. If the char-
acters are breezing through the skill challenges and
fights, consider beefing up the foes with some of these
encounter groups.
Baazrag Swarm
Encounter Level 2 (XP 600)
2 baazrag gnawers
2 baazrag swarms
4 baazrag whelps
The characters stumble upon a baazrag burrow. The
voracious beasts come boiling up out of the ground
when the heroes disturb their lair. It is unlikely that
the baazrags will surprise the characters, as they
make an awful racket of clicking and squealing as
they exit their burrows to attack.
The baazrags use gang up on heroes to take advan-
tage of pack harrier. The gnawers attempt to latch onto
a character immediately and use gnaw to inject their
poison. The baazrag swarms attempt to knock a char-
acter off his or her feet with pull down, then flow over
their prone victim and tear him or her to pieces. The
baazrag whelps focus their attacks on any character
engaged with a gnawer and or knocked prone by a
baazrag swarm. The baazrags fight relentlessly and to
the death.
Silt Runner Surprise
Encounter Level 1 (XP 525)
2 silt runner darters
1 silt runner inciter
2 silt runner ragers
The Vault of Darom Madar
A small group of silt runners try to ambush the char-
acters. The silt runners have a passive Stealth check
of 17 and hide in an area with plenty of cover such as
dense scrub or a boulder field.
If the silt runners surprise the characters, they
use their surprise round as follows. The darters fire
poison darts at characters with bows or javelins; the
inciter blasts the characters with psionic detonation,
attempting to catch as many characters as possible in
the blast; and the ragers charge the closest characters
and engage them in melee. As battle continues, the
darters remain out of melee range, instead pepper-
ing the heroes with poison darts as often as the power
recharges. The ragers use penetrating spear immedi-
ately and stay close to one another so their foes take
damage from silt runner swarm. The inciter enters
melee with its bone sword until psionic detonations
recharges; it then shifts away from melee and targets
as many characters as it can catch in the blast. The silt
runners fight to the death.
Elven Entourage
Encounter Level 1 (XP 525)
2 elf dune striders
1 elf peddler
4 elf snipers
An elven trader and his bodyguards decide the char-
acters make better victims than customers. The elf
peddler greets the characters as he and his group
approach. He attempts to dupe the characters into
believing they are simple desert traders. Give the
characters an Insight check opposed by the peddler’s
Bluff check. If the characters fail to see through the
elven ruse, the elves gain a surprise round on them.
Of course, the players are always free to be suspicious
without a die roll and take steps to avoid being caught
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off-guard. Likewise, if the players show no caution at
all, you’re well within your authority as DM to give
them no Insight check.
If the elves surprise the characters, the elf peddler
and dune striders charge forward and engage the
characters in melee. The snipers hang back and hurl
their chatkchas at obvious spellcasters. As the battle
continues, the elf peddler uses double dealing and
peddler’s command to maneuver itself and the dune
striders into flanking positions against the characters.
When bloodied, the dune striders use rushing dervish
to carve their way through the heroes and gain a
more advantageous position on the battlefield. The elf
snipers avoid melee combat at all costs. Instead, they
use elven misdirection to move behind cover before
making ranged attacks with their chatkchas.
The elves do not fight to the death. If the charac-
ters slay more than half their number and bloody the
elf peddler, the elves flee if they can. If they can’t,
they throw down their weapons and beg for mercy.
Crimson Oasis
Halfway between Altaruk and Silver Spring lies a
small, nameless oasis that is little more than a muddy
pool in a shallow, sandy depression. This humble oasis
has long served as an important way station for travel-
ers making the dangerous trip across the Tablelands.
Recently, bandits calling themselves the Crimson
Vipers have taken up residence at the oasis and have
been mercilessly killing and robbing desert travelers
who stop there.
The Crimson Vipers are led by Drokan, a dwarven
priest, and his longtime companion in villainy, a half-
ling wilder named Yassi. The rest of the gang consists
of three human warriors, all of whom are considered
expendable by Drokan and Yassi.
Knowing how vital the oasis is to desert travelers,
the Crimson Vipers typically let their victims come
to them. When an approaching dust cloud is spotted,
Yassi ranges out to scout the approaching travelers
and gauge their strength. Large, well-armed caravans
are left unmolested, and the bandits make themselves
scarce while such unattainable prey uses the oasis.
Smaller groups are ambushed, murdered, stripped of
valuables, and then buried in the desert.
The approaching characters fall into the latter
group.
The characters can avoid walking into an ambush
if they spot Yassi before they reach the oasis. The
characters can spot the halfling wilder while he
observes them from a nearby hiding spot place. Yassi
remains at least 20 squares away from the approach-
ing characters while observing them and uses natural
cover for concealment. His passive Stealth check is
19; at a range of 20 squares, however, the characters
need a Perception check of 23 to spot the hidden
halfling. If the characters see Yassi, he immediately
springs up and sprints back to the oasis to warn
Drokan. If the heroes fail to spot him, he lets them
pass by, then sneaks back to the oasis to join in the
ambush.
If the characters spot Yassi, read:
Sudden movement among the rolling dunes ahead catches
your eye. A small, lithe form springs up from behind a low
dune and races off to the north, away from your group.
Once the characters reach the oasis, the Crimson
Vipers are ready for them, hiding in the sparse scrub
around the muddy pool. The bandits have a passive
Stealth check of 11. If the characters spotted Yassi
before reaching the oasis, give them a +2 bonus to all
Perception checks made to spot the hiding bandits.
The Vault of Darom Madar
When the characters approach the oasis, read:
Calling this muddy hole in the ground surrounded by desert
scrub an oasis is an overstatement. However, even muddy,
foul-tasting water is welcome relief from the desert. Before
you can contemplate your first sip, the oasis erupts into
violent action as three armed men burst from cover and
charge toward you.
Go to Tactical Encounter 1-1: Crimson Oasis.
Wasteland Assassins
The characters’ quest to find the treasure of House
Madar has not gone unnoticed. House Tsalaxa, now
led by Virinus’ descendant Haneth Tsalaxa, has
learned through its vast network of spies that a group
of heroes is searching for the lost vault of Darom
Madar. Unwilling to let the wealth of his house’s
ancient enemy fall into the hands of simple adventur-
ers, Haneth has followed in his ancestor’s footsteps
and hired a group of assassins to deal with the char-
acters and recover any information they may have on
the location of House Madar’s treasure.
The assassins’ first attempt on the characters’ lives
happens during the heroes’ trek across the Tablelands
to Silver Spring. The assassins, led by a twisted defiler,
ambush the characters in an area of rolling dunes and
trackless wasteland. The squad of assassins consists
of the defiler, three elven snipers, and the defiler’s
crodlu mount.
The assassins stage their ambush at the top of a
series of boulder-strewn dunes. The dunes and the
boulders provide excellent cover and force the charac-
ters to move up the dune to engage the assassins. The
elven assassins lie prone atop boulders waiting for the
characters to come within range of their bows while
the defiler and his crodlu kneel behind one of the
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10
 The Vault of Darom Madar

small dunes. The group has a passive Stealth check
of 21. Once they spot the characters, the assassins
unleash a volley of ranged attacks on the heroes.
When the assassins attack, read the following
aloud:
The desert is a ceaseless blur of sun-scorched sand and
rolling dunes. There is little to break the draining monotony
of heat and thirst that plagues all desert travelers. When
the barbed arrows begin hissing from the sky, fired by a trio
of dark shapes on the crest of a nearby dune, it is almost a
welcome break to the drudgery of travel.
Go to Tactical Encounter 1-2: Wasteland
Assassins.
Gaining an audience with Toramund is not easy. An Audience
The elves are not fond of traders beyond what they with Toramund
come to sell and buy, and Toramund only meets with
The characters’ attempt to bargain for information
those he considers important enough to warrant his
from the elven chieftain Toramund can be handled as
attention. If the characters agreed to deliver Iseel’s
a pure roleplaying encounter or as a roleplaying skill
message to the elven leader, they have an excellent
challenge.
way to gain Toramund’s attention. All they need to do
Elves are notoriously tough negotiators; getting
is mention Iseel’s name and that they bear a message
them to part with anything, be it information or mer-
from her, and they are whisked through a bewilder-
chandise, is a long, grueling experience not wisely
ing array of passages beneath Silver Spring and into
undertaken by the faint of heart. In addition, Tora-
Toramund’s presence. Getting the elven chieftain to
mund has risen to his current position by being one of
tell them anything is another matter entirely.
the shrewdest negotiators on the Tablelands.
In other words, the characters have their work cut
out for them.

Silver Spring Oasis

Silver Spring oasis has long stood as a vital stop on the
trade route between Urik and Tyr. Its longevity in a
desert filled with dangerous monsters and brutal ban-
dits is a testament to the skill of the Silver Hand elves
who have guarded the fortified oasis for generations.
Silver Spring oasis consists of a walled caravanserai
within which stands the “Silver Spring,” the source
of the oasis’s water and name. Doors along the inner
walls lead to sleeping chambers, a common room,
food stores, stables, and vaults where traders can
safely store their merchandise.
The characters’ goal here is to meet with the elven
chieftain Toramund. The elves are known to have
quite a bit of desert lore, and Rhotan Vor believes
Toramund can tell them much about the dangers
that infest the Canyon of Guthay. In addition to any
information they may gain, Silver Spring is an ideal
place to rest and resupply before heading back out
into the desert.

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If the characters have Iseel’s message for Tora-
mund and have decrypted its elven cypher, they can
gain an edge in the negotiations with Toramund. If
the characters decided not to deliver Iseel’s message,
they must bribe their way into Toramund’s presence.
A bribe of five survival days’ worth of food and water
(or the equivalent) is enough to earn them an audi-
ence with Toramund. This amount can be reduced
to three survival days with a successful Diplomacy
check (DC 17) on the elf in charge of who does and
doesn’t gain access to Toramund. (Presumably, he
will keep most of the bribe for himself.) Let players
come up with this idea on their own or hint at it only
broadly in their encounter with the guard.
Regardless of how the characters get to Toramund,
when they are brought to his secret meeting chamber
beneath Silver Spring, read the following aloud:
Your elven guide leads you through a bewildering array of
narrow passages that seem to slope ever downward. You
were promised an audience with the chieftain Toramund,
and as you wind deeper into the labyrinth, you realize you
would never had reached him on your own. You may not be
able to find your way out again without guide. Finally, you
stop before a curtained aperture in a narrow tunnel from
which the soft glow of firelight emanates. Your guide pushes
the curtain aside and motions for you to enter.
Beyond the curtain, a small, square room holds a
single elven man sitting cross-legged on the earthen floor
on a woven matt. Like all elves he is long-limbed and
rangy, but this elf has a physical presence that most elves
lack. An unsheathed obsidian longsword lies casually on
the floor just inches from his hand. The elven man fixes
you with steel-blue eyes and says, “Here I am. Now what
do you fools want?”
The elven man is Toramund, of course. The char-
acters might find it odd that this important leader
chose to meet them alone. However, a DC 12 Insight
check reveals this is meant as an insult. Toramund
considers their abilities so far beneath his own that
he doesn’t consider the newcomers any threat. If the
characters have Iseel’s message, they can give it to
Toramund now. As he reads it, give the characters an
Insight check against Toramund’s Bluff check (DC
20) to realize the contents of the letter have affected
the elven leader greatly. At this point, if the characters
deciphered the message (or think they did), they can
try to gain an advantage over Toramund.
If the characters correctly deciphered Iseel’s mes-
sage, they can offer their services to the elven leader.
For example, since the characters’ ultimate destina-
tion is Tyr, they can offer to seek out Toramund’s son
Ravee and deliver a message to him once they get
there. An offer like this earns the characters a modi-
cum of respect and grants them a +1 bonus to all skill
checks in the “Negotiating with Toramund” skill chal-
lenge. In addition, you can use Ravee’s plight in Tyr as
a hook for further adventure in the great city.
If the characters deciphered Iseel’s message
incorrectly and offer their condolences on the death
of Toramund’s son, he curses them as fools and is
offended that they would try to read a message meant
for his eyes only. In this scenario, the characters gain
a -1 penalty to all skill checks made in the “Negotiat-
ing with Toramund” skill challenge.
If the characters did not agree to deliver Iseel’s
message or simply do not think to use the information
in the message, then run the skill challenge without
bonuses or penalties.
The Vault of Darom Madar
The characters are under no obligation to tell Tora-
mund why they intend to enter the Canyon of Guthay.
If they do tell him they seek the lost treasure of House
Madar, Toramund laughs and sardonically wishes
them the best of luck. Toramund believes House
Madar’s treasure is no more than a desert wisp, and
thinks the characters foolish, insane, or both for
undertaking such a ridiculous quest.
Negotiating with Toramund
Level 2 (XP 500)
Complexity: 4 (requires 10 successes before 3
failures)
Primary Skills: Bluff, Diplomacy
Bluff (DC 13; standard action; 1 success, no maxi-
mum): You use your quick mind and silver tongue
to exaggerate your group’s abilities in an attempt to
impress the elven chieftain.
Diplomacy (DC 13; standard action; 1 success,
no maximum): You are a skilled negotiator, and
you match your skills well against the shrewd elven
chieftain.
Secondary Skills: Endurance, Insight, Intimidate,
Nature
Endurance (DC 12; standard action; 1 success max-
imum): The elves admire physical endurance. You
relate a tale of a grueling physical obstacle your group
has overcome recently.
Insight (DC 15; standard action; 0 successes):
Reading Toramund’s body language is no easy task,
but if you pay close attention, the elven chieftain has
a few tells that, once identified, can aid your negotia-
tions. You grant a +2 bonus to one ally’s next Buff or
Diplomacy check made as part of this skill challenge.
Intimidate (standard action; 1 failure): Any attempt
to intimidate Toramund automatically fails and earns
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the characters a failure and a -1 penalty to all further
skill checks made in the skill challenge. Toramund
simply does not view the characters as a threat.
Nature (DC 12; standard action; 1 success, 1 maxi-
mum): Elves respect those who understand the wilds
of Athas. You relate some of your knowledge of the
natural world in an attempt to impress Toramund.
Success: Toramund tells the characters what he
knows about the dangers of the Canyon of Guthay.
This knowledge gains them the following benefits,
depending on how many failures they earned before
completing the skill challenge.
0 Failures: So skilled were the characters in their
negotiations that they managed to impress Toramund,
and he tells them all he knows about the Canyon
of Guthay. The elven chieftain’s detailed informa-
tion grants them a +2 bonus to all skill checks in the
“Exploring the Canyon” skill challenge in Part 2 and
allows them to turn one failure into a success. Fur-
thermore, Toramund is so impressed with their drive
that he charges them only two survival days of food
and water for the information.
1 Failure: The characters did not embarrass them-
selves in the negotiation. They gain a +1 bonus on skill
checks in the “Exploring the Canyon” skill challenge
in Part 2. The characters are charged three survival
days of food and water (or the equivalent) for this
information.
2 Failures: The characters emerge from negotiat-
ing with Toramund looking diminished and foolish,
but they got some of what they wanted from the wily
chieftain. They gain no bonus or penalty on skill
checks in the “Exploring the Canyon” skill challenge
in Part 2. The characters are charged five survival
days of food and water (or the equivalent) for the
scraps that Toramund revealed.
Failure: If the characters fail this skill challenge,
they only confirm Toramund’s original assessment
of them as weak, foolish outsiders. He gives them
only the scantest details about the Canyon of Guthay,
which they probably could have gotten from anyone
at the oasis. This enables them to find the canyon
without incident. If, however, the characters tried to
Intimidate Toramund at any point, then he fed them
false information along with the rest, and it will lead
them directly into danger. In this case, the first time
the characters earn a failure in the “Exploring the
Canyon” skill challenge and blunder into a combat
encounter, they are automatically surprised.
The Canyon
of Guthay
Armed with the knowledge bought from Toramund at
Silver Spring, the characters can travel to the Canyon
of Guthay and begin searching in earnest for the lost
treasure of House Madar. The walls of the canyon are
riddled with caverns, any of which could hold the lost
vault. The others hold only dust or, as often as not,
serve as the lair of dangerous desert monsters and
humanoids.
The Canyon of Guthay combines the features of
a true canyon and a massive rift. Some immense
tectonic disturbance in the dim past caused the floor
of the canyon to subside about a hundred feet below
the level of the surrounding terrain, while the rocky
walls were heaved upward by the same amount. The
result is a canyon that is twice as deep as it appears
from a distance when one can see only the massive
upheaval of bedrock around it. A trail winds down
through tumbled boulders to the canyon’s floor,
The Vault of Darom Madar
which is a stretch of relatively smooth sand and gravel
that varies from 30 to 90 feet wide along its half-mile
length. The walls of the canyon are rough and fairly
easy to climb, requiring a DC 10 Athletics check.
Wagons can be brought down the trail into the
canyon, but it’s a difficult, exhausting trek. Instead,
while the characters search the canyon, Rhotan Vor
and his caravan wait in a rock-sheltered location
about a mile away. The trader expects the characters
to find the vault and clear out any dangerous mon-
sters before he and his men descend into the canyon
to help ferry up the treasure. If the characters have
not returned by the end of three days, Rhotan Vor
will assume the worst and return to Silver Spring.
He waits there for another three days before giving
up the characters for dead and continuing on to Tyr.
None of this is a secret; Rhotan Vor tells the charac-
ters that this is his timetable.
Run the “Exploring the Canyon” skill challenge to
cover the character’s search for the cavern that houses
the vault.
The primary skill checks in this challenge are
group skill checks. If at least half of the characters
succeed on their rolls in a group skill check, the party
earns 1 success in that primary skill. Secondary skill
checks are attempted individually, by one character
in the group once per group skill check. In addition,
the characters must earn at least two successes in
both primary group skill checks to complete the skill
challenge.
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Exploring the
Canyon Skill Challenge
Level: 3 (XP 450)
Complexity: 3 (requires 8 success before 3 failures)
Primary Skills: History, Perception
History (DC 13, group check; 1 success): By com-
piling all you have learned about the Canyon of
Guthay and the possible location of the treasure of
House Madar, you can narrow down the number of
possible caverns which might hold the hidden trea-
sure vault.
Perception (DC 13, group check; 1 success): Your
keen eyes help your group locate caverns that seem
more likely to hold the vault of Darom Madar rather
than serve as the lair for some desert monstrosity.
Secondary Skills: Athletics, Nature, Stealth
Athletics (DC 13; 0 successes, 1 attempt per pri-
mary skill group check): Some of the caverns you
wish to explore are high up on the canyon wall. Your
athletic ability allows you to climb up and take a peek
at such caverns before your entire group follows. You
convert a single character’s failed History or Per-
ception check into a success as part of a History or
Perception primary skill group check.
Nature (DC 13; 0 successes, 1 attempt per primary
skill group check): Your knowledge of the natural
world helps you notice the telltale signs that a cavern
is inhabited by living creatures. You convert a single
character’s failed History or Perception check into
a success as part of a History or Perception primary
skill group check.
Stealth (DC 15, group check; 1 attempt per primary
skill group check): This cavern holds no treasure,
only death for those unlucky enough to disturb its
occupants. The characters can make this group skill
check when they earn a failure in either of the primary
group skill checks. If the characters succeed, they don’t
cancel that failure but they do avoid detection by the
cavern’s inhabitants. They can either sneak away with-
out a fight or gain a surprise round on the monsters.
Success: The characters find the vault of Darom
Madar cleverly hidden in a natural cavern near the
base of the canyon wall.
Failure: Every time the characters earn a failure
from a primary skill group check, they trigger one of
the optional encounters below or another chosen by
you. In addition, each failure represents the passage
of one day in the canyon. If the skill challenge as a
whole ends in failure, the characters have wasted
three days in searching and Rhotan Vor withdraws
to Silver Spring. To keep searching, they must start
the skill challenge over again from the beginning. If
the skill challenge fails a second time, enough time
has passed that Rhotan Vor assumes the characters
have died and heads for Tyr. Characters can continue
searching and may eventually find the vault (if thirst
or monsters don’t claim them first), but you will need
to decide how subsequent events unfold with Rhotan
Vor out of the picture.
Optional Encounters
These condensed encounters can be run when
the characters earn a failure in the “Exploring the
Canyon” skill challenge. These encounters occur
within one of the many caverns in Guthay Canyon.
Feel free to run them on the canyon floor for variety.
You can use the Caves of Carnage or Desert of Athas
Dungeon Tiles to quickly create an encounter area.
The Vault of Darom Madar
Although they are designed to be part of the skill
challenge, these encounters are optional. They can be
an ideal way to give the characters a bit more experi-
ence if you’d like them to gain a level before entering
the vault of Darom Madar. You might even run one
or more of these encounters specifically for that
reason regardless of how well the characters perform
in the skill challenge, or just to break up the routine
of searching caverns. Additional encounters can be
put together from the Dark Sun Creature Catalog, or
entirely different types of encounters can replace
those listed below—possibilities include an ancient
burial chamber, slave refugees, a shaft leading to the
Underdark, a quick side trek adapted from Dungeon
Delve or a Chaos Scar adventure, or even a lifesaving
trickle of red, alkaline water if the characters are at
death’s door.
Ankheg Lair
Encounter Level 3 (XP 750)
2 ankhegs
6 ankheg broodlings
This cavern is occupied by a pair of ankhegs and
their brood. When the characters enter this cavern,
the adult ankhegs are lurking beneath the cavern
floor. Only some of the broodlings are on the sur-
face; roll 1d6 to determine how many. Although the
adult ankhegs are impossible to spot hidden beneath
the ground, a successful monster knowledge check
(Nature, DC 10) made on the visible broodlings can
tell the characters that danger lurks belowground and
keep them from being surprised.
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Hejkin Cavern
Encounter Level 2 (XP 675)
1 hejkin chanter
3 hejkin sparkers
2 kruthik young
This cavern is inhabited by a small band of hejkin.
This particular band has tamed a pair of young
kruthik to serve as watch beasts. The kruthiks are
positioned at the mouth of the cave so they can detect
approaching enemies with their tremorsense. This
makes this particular group of monsters fairly dif-
ficult to surprise. The cavern contains 5 survival days
worth of food and water.
Gith Lair
Encounter Level 3 (XP 726)
2 gith hobblers
4 gith piercers
1 gith spearhead
This cavern is occupied by a handful of renegade gith.
The repulsive humanoids are not particularly obser-
vant, although they typically post a single gith piercer
near the mouth of their cavern as a sentry. The gith
piercer has a passive Perception score of only 12. If
the sentry does notice the characters approaching or
climbing into the cavern, it spends a minor action to
howl an alarm before scuttling back into the cavern to
join the rest of its tribe. If it can be eliminated silently,
characters can automatically gain surprise against the
remaining gith. The cavern contains 7 survival days
worth of food and water.
Antechamber
The vault of Darom Madar is hidden within a
natural cavern near the base of the canyon wall. It
has remained unplundered by the denizens of the
Canyon of Guthay largely because it is guarded by the
restless dead of House Madar.
Darom Madar himself was there to oversee the
final transfer of his house’s wealth into the vault. In
addition, he had the vault constructed to house the
bodies of those in his immediate family who had
been slain by the attacks of House Tsalaxa. Before
Darom and what remained of his house could seal
the vault, a group of house Tsalaxa assassins attacked.
The battle was fierce, and most of it took place in the
natural cavern outside the vault. Darom himself was
sorely wounded, but he managed to retreat into the
vault and then make his way to the treasure chamber,
where he died.
The intense hatred and violence of that final con-
flict between House Madar and House Tsalaxa had
an unexpected effect. It animated the dead of both
houses, condemning their lifeless flesh and trapped
souls to serve as eternal guardians for the vault for
the rest of eternity. These undead guardians attack
anyone or anything foolish enough to enter the cavern
that holds the vault.
This cavern was the scene of a heated battle, and the
remnants of that battle are strewn about the place.
Over one hundred years ago, what remained of House
Madar battled a group of House Tsalaxa assassins.
The battle claimed the lives of everyone involved, and
the intense hatred borne of the battle has reanimated
the dead as zombies and skeletons.
The Vault of Darom Madar
The leader of the House Tsalaxa assassins dabbled
in defiler magic and was animated as a dread black
reaver zombie. His lieutenant and minions followed
their leader’s path to undeath and were animated as
zombies in his service.
The leader of House Madar’s forces was a lesser
scion of the Madar line and was an accomplished
archer and swordsman. He and his men returned to
unlife as skeletons in an undead mockery of the sol-
diers they’d once been
The undead lay inert, scattered around the cavern,
until intruders enter. Then they rise up to defend
the vault, both Madar and Tsalaxa united in this one
cause.
When characters enter the cavern, read:
This dark cavern is strewn with corpses. Most are badly
decomposed or reduced to bare bones. Many are armed and
armored with crumbling gear in two distinctly different
styles. Some, however, appear to be freshly killed; the
crimson gore beneath a pile of gith bodies can’t be more
than a few days old.
Across the gory killing field, the cavern gives way to a
short tunnel. There, the unnatural lines of worked stone
lead further into darkness.
The fresh corpses are the remains of canyon deni-
zens who foolishly entered the cavern and were slain
by the undead. The older corpses, of course, are the
undead. Let the characters move into the cavern,
spread out, and explore a bit before the undead rise
to attack. The undead are slow-moving at first, so
the characters aren’t likely to be surprised by their
sudden animation.
Go to Tactical Encounter 2-1: Cavern of
Eternal Conf lict.
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The Crypt of Sorrow
The passage at the rear of the outer vault is obviously
man-made. It winds through about 50 feet of rock
before ending at a set of double doors.
When the characters arrive at the doors, read:
Before you stands a pair of towering doors. Their size is
impressive, but even more astounding is that they are clad
in copper! Even if it is as thin as a strand of hair, it is more
metal than you have ever seen in one place.
The metal encasing the doors is copper, easily recog-
nized by its greenish patina. The copper is foil-thin
and has been affixed with a powerful adhesive.
Removing it cleanly would take weeks of painstak-
ing labor. It can be chipped away in chunks in only
a few hours, but the resulting heap of gravel would
need to be hauled in a wagon to a furnace to melt off
and retrieve the copper. In all, about 80 gp worth of
copper can be salvaged from the doors with diligent
effort. This can count as a portion of treasure parcel 4
or simply be a reward for determined characters.
The doors are not locked, simply heavy. Darom
Madar did not have time to seal them properly when
he fled the battle in the outer vault to seal himself in
the treasure room.
When the characters open the doors, read:
This large stone chamber is dominated by a trio of
sarcophagi. They surround a stone obelisk which towers10
feet in the air. Every surface of the obelisk is scribed with
writing. Portions of the ceiling have collapsed, leaving piles
of rubble in various places. On the far side of the room, a
solid dam of dark material is set into a recess in the wall.
The Vault of Darom Madar
This chamber was originally intended to house the can discover its true nature, but rough scraping will
remains of Darom Madar’s wife and two eldest sons, simply cut through the silver foil and reveal only the
all slain by House Tsalaxa assassins. In the century stone beneath.
that has passed since their deaths, the spirits of the
When characters approach the wall, read:
three have become restless and have risen as ghostly
abominations. They now lurk within their sarcophagi, A huge slab of smooth, dark, smoky-colored material
waiting for living creatures to invade their tomb so stretches across the recessed wall. Charred bones and small
they may rise up and feed upon life energy. heaps of ash at its base lend it an air of menace. There is
In addition to the ghostly undead, a more subtle no visible means of shifting, raising, or lowering it—if it is a
danger awaits intruders. The obelisk in the center door at all.
of the room is scribed with the names of each and
Darom Madar sealed away himself and the treasure
every member of House Madar, stretching back to the
of his house to prevent it falling into the hands of the
founding of the house. It has become a kind of battery
villainous House Tsalaxa. The massive silver door that
for the rage and sorrow of House Madar’s last days.
protects the treasure vault was created at an unfath-
The obelisk leeches negative emotions from living
omable cost, trapped by the most skilled trapsmiths,
creatures to generate dangerous quasi-undead known
and enchanted by House Madar’s most skilled arcane
as wisp wraiths.
spellcasters. The final product is a nearly impenetra-
There is no light in this chamber other than what
ble door that can be moved aside only by those skilled
the characters bring with them. Darkness would
in both the mechanical and the arcane.
give the incorporeal undead a perfect opportunity to
This door is so cunningly fitted into its frame
ambush the characters.
that it may not be immediately recognizable as a
Go to Tactical Encounter 2-2: The Crypt of
door. It could just as easily be a recessed nook for a
Sorrow.
ceremonial altar that’s no longer present or merely a
symbolic portal to the afterlife.
Opening the Vault Once characters start in on a close examination of
the door, they’ve begun the “Opening the Vault” skill
After the fight against the crypt’s inhabitants, char- challenge, whether or not the players realize they’re
acters have time to explore the chamber. The seal in a skill challenge.
that closes off the back corridor appears a deep,
smoky gray. It is in fact silver cladding which, like
the copper on the outer doors, is tarnished by age.
The tarnish makes it difficult to recognize the mate-
rial as silver, especially since characters at this level
probably have never seen much silver and certainly
have never seen any that was allowed to tarnish. A
character who scrapes at it delicately with a knife
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Opening the Vault Skill
Challenge
Level: 3 (XP 750)
Complexity: 5 (requires 12 successes before 3
failures)
Primary Skills: Arcana, Thievery
Arcana (DC 13; standard action; 1 success, no
maximum): Your knowledge of the arcane arts allows
you to puzzle out the inner workings of the traps and
other magical devices that lurk within the barrier.
Thievery (DC 13; standard action; 1 success, no
maximum): Your fingers are deft, your knowledge of
mechanical traps and opening mechanisms superb.
Your skills are instrumental in overcoming this
obstacle.
Secondary Skills: Dungeoneering, History,
Perception
Dungeoneering (DC 10; standard action; 0 suc-
cesses): You’ve seen more than your fair share of
traps and well-guarded doors. You might not have the
mechanical aptitude of a skilled trapsmith, but your
experience can certainly aid your party. You grant a
+2 bonus to the next Thievery check made as part of
this skill challenge.
History (DC 13; standard action; 0 successes): You
have some knowledge of House Madar’s arcane prac-
tices, knowledge that could prove invaluable here.
You grant a +2 bonus to the next Arcana check made
as part of this skill challenge.
Perception (DC 15; immediate reaction; 0 suc-
cesses, 3 attempts maximum): Your keen eyes allow
you to spot an impending blunder by one of your com-
panions who is trying to bypass the wall. You allow
an ally who has just failed a skill check in one of this
challenge’s primary skills to reroll his skill check with
The Vault of Darom Madar
a -2 penalty. Failing again on the reroll has no addi- Treasure Chamber
tional effect.
Success: You manage to disarm the wall’s copi- When the silver wall descends, read:
ous traps and trigger the mechanism that causes it to
The silver wall slides downward into the ground, revealing
lower into a slot in the floor. You can now enter the
a short passageway that leads to a small room. Within
lost vault of Darom Madar.
you can see chests, racks of weapons, and other amazing
Failure: Each failure earned in this skill challenge
valuables piled around the chamber. Standing in the middle
triggers once of the wall’s traps.
of the vault, however, is a withered, ragged figure in rotting
Arcana Failure: A botched Arcana check triggers a
finery. Its gaunt features are dreadful and unearthly.
magical blast from the wall. Roll a d6 to determine
the size of the blast in squares, then roll a d4 to deter-
mine what kind of energy is unleashed: 1 = acid, 2 =
electricity, 3 = fire, 4 = thunder. Once you’ve deter-
mined the size of the blast and the type of energy
unleashed, make the following attack against charac-
ters in the blast: Close blast 1-6; +6 vs. Reflex; 2d10 +
3 (energy) damage.
Thievery Failure: A botched Thievery check triggers
one of the wall’s mechanical traps. Roll a d4 to deter-
mine how many characters are targeted by the trap
and select those characters randomly. Then make
the following attack against each of those characters:
Ranged 10; +9 vs. AC; 1d10 + 3 damage, and ongoing
5 poison damage (save ends).
If the characters earn three failures, the wall
cannot be opened for 24 hours; characters can try
again after that much time has passed. A DC 12
Arcana or Thievery check reveals this fact. While
they wait, consider having a group of monsters from
one of the optional combat encounters surprise the
heroes.
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Darom Madar did not escape the fate of the rest of
his house. He was wounded in the battle with House
Tsalaxa assassins but managed to seal himself in the
treasure chamber before succumbing to his wounds.
He also did not escape the fate of those who died
within the vault and has become an undead horror
fueled by rage and hatred.
The monster Darom Madar has become is called
an oath wight, a creature animated by a twisted sense
of duty to a task left unfinished or interrupted. He
has waited here in the dark and the dust for over a
century and is quite eager to inflict his all-consuming
rage and sense of loss on the living.
Darom Madar does not try to surprise the char-
acters. He simply charges into melee as soon as the
silver wall falls.
Go to Tactical Encounter 2-4: The Rage of
Darom Madar.
When the characters defeat the animated corpse of
Darom Madar, they can set about looting his treasure.
It is recommended that the compiled treasure be
equivalent to ten level 3 treasure parcels. Remember,
the characters don’t get to keep all of the treasure
themselves! They are here as Rhotan Vor’s hirelings.
They get their pick of the best loot and a cut of the
proceeds once it has been sold in Tyr.
You can create all the treasure parcels and then let
the characters choose their items from that list, or for
simplicity’s sake, you can simply give each character
one item from his or her wish list.
Faced with all that treasure, many players will
undoubtedly toy with the idea of doing away with
Rhotan Vor and his workers, taking the skiffs, and
keeping all the treasure for themselves. Whatever
opinion they might have about Rhotan Vor and his
teamsters, this is a very risky plan at their level. Let
them know that they’re probably biting off more than
they can chew, and be sure that they understand the
situation clearly before proceeding. They can almost
certainly accomplish the first part—killing the mer-
chant and his crew—but that’s where their trouble will
begin. Rhotan Vor is part of the Wavir trading house,
which is powerful in its own right and has mercantile
connections all around the Tablelands. Their skiffs
will be recognized in most places. Wavir undoubtedly
pays protection money to crooked templars, who will
lose credibility with their ‘clients’ if they let a murder
like this go unpunished. None of that means the char-
acters can’t go down this road if that’s the choice they
make; it’s guaranteed to launch them on a career of
thrilling adventure. But before doing something rash,
they should understand that it’s likely to be a short
career if they make enemies of Wavir and corrupt
templars at such low level.
Assassin Ambush
Another squad of assassins in the employ of House
Tsalaxa has tracked the characters to the cavern that
holds the vault of Darom Madar. Their mission is to
kill the characters; although Haneth has instructed
them to locate the treasure of House Madar – if it
exists. So instead of following the characters into
the vault and possibly having to deal with whatever
dangers lie within, the assassins are content to simply
wait for the heroes to exit the entry cavern to spring
their attack. The assassins assume they will face a
weakened group of heroes who have already done
the heavy lifting inside the vault, allowing the House
Tsalaxa operatives to complete both missions assigned
to them without any undue risk.
The Vault of Darom Madar
Go to Tactical Encounter 2-5: Assassin
Ambush.
After the battle, the characters will recognize the
assassins as being from the same group that attacked
them on their trek across the Tablelands. The assas-
sins carry nothing that might implicate them as
operatives of House Tsalaxa.
Across the Alluvial
Sand Wastes
After surviving the horrors of the vault of Darom
Madar, the characters are in possession of a king’s
ransom in treasure. Now they must get the treasure
loaded into Rhotan Vor’s caravan and make the
arduous trip across the Great Alluvial Wastes to Tyr.
Unlike the first two parts of the journey, Rhotan Vor
wants the heroes to remain close to the caravan on
this leg. They must ensure that Rhotan Vor, his men,
and his cargo arrive safely in Tyr.
Primary Quest: Express Caravan to Tyr
The heroes must escort Rhotan Vor and his caravan
across the Great Alluvial Sand Wastes. With the three
sand skiffs laden with treasure, the characters will be
on foot and the trip will be a long one. Rhotan Vor
believes the heroes’ visible presence near the caravan
will deter raiders and other wasteland dangers.
Quest XP: 750 (major quest) for reaching Tyr with
the caravan intact.
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Traveling with the caravan means that the characters
are largely protected from the environmental dangers
of the Alluvial Sand Wastes. Rhotan Vor has plenty
of water and food which he shares with the heroes as
they travel.
The Wavir trader and his men are not warriors;
they rely upon the characters to defend them during
combat. (They aren’t fools, either; they watch the
characters closely for signs of wavering loyalty.)
To portray the difficulty of defending the cara-
van while battling whatever desert horrors show up,
the characters must make skill checks at the end
of each combat round. The skills that can be used
are Acrobatics, Athletics, Bluff, Insight, and Stealth.
Each player can select which skill to use; different
characters can use different skills. These skill checks
determine whether the characters manage to keep
the NPCs safe by pushing them away from danger,
showing them where to hide, deflecting attacks, and
distracting enemies.
The DC for these checks is 17. If the character hit
with an attack during the round, he gets a +2 bonus
on the check. If the character didn’t hit with any
attacks during the round, he gets a -2 penalty on the
check. (It might be simpler for some groups to keep
track of these checks if each player makes the die roll
at the end of the character’s turn rather than waiting
for the end of the round. Some bonuses might be lost
this way if, for example, a character didn’t hit during
his turn but hit with an opportunity attack later in
the turn.)
At the end of the turn, after all these skill
checks are made, the DM rolls 1d6 (if there are
more than six player characters, roll 1d8 instead).
Subtract the number of successful skill checks
from the roll. The result is how many hits the
NPCs took from enemy attacks.
To keep bookkeeping simple, each NPC can sur-
vive two hits, but a third hit kills him. A dead NPC
can’t take any more hits. Rhotan Vor has eight men
with him; two pilots and six deckhands. Distribute
hits between them randomly. Rhotan Vor will not
take hits this way unless none of the characters
succeeded on their skill check or he is the only
remaining NPC. In the first case, he takes one of the
hits; in the second case, he takes all of them.
Losing crew members can leave the sand skiffs
without enough crew to proceed. For each pilot or
two deckhands lost, one of the sand skiffs and all the
treasure it is carrying must be abandoned. Rhotan
Vor deducts the cost of an abandoned silt skimmer
from the characters’ cut of the treasure when the loot
is sold in Tyr, unless they take steps to conceal it in
the desert and accompany an expedition to retrieve
it later (which can be the hook for your next adven-
ture!). Characters with the Dune Trader or Wasteland
Nomad theme can fill in for lost deckhands but not
for lost skiff pilots.
Optional Encounters
The condensed encounters below can be run as the
characters cross the Alluvial Sand Wastes. You can
use the Desert of Athas Dungeon Tiles to quickly
create an encounter area appropriate for the area or
sketch one on your battlemat. These encounters are
completely optional but can serve as a good way to
give the characters a bit more experience if you’d like
them to gain a level before the final encounter.
The Vault of Darom Madar
Carrion Killers
Encounter Level 3 (XP 750)
2 jhakar trackers
2 jhakar skirmishers
2 kestrekel blood f locks
The characters come upon the mammoth corpse of a
mekillot which is serving as an incredible bounty for
a number of scavengers. The most dangerous scaven-
gers, a pack of jhakars and a horde of tiny kestrekels,
are none too pleased at having their meal disturbed.
In addition, now that fresher fare has arrived on
scene, the carrion eaters turn predator.
Kruthik Clutch
Encounter Level 4 (XP 849)
2 kruthik adults
4 kruthik hatchlings
3 kruthik young
A small clutch of kruthiks have made their lair
beneath the sandy wastes. Through their tremorsense,
they can detect potential prey moving across the sand
above them. When the characters and the caravan
enter the area, the kruthiks burrow up through the
sand and attack.
Silken Surprise
This encounter occurs at any point when the char-
acters and the caravan are stopped for the night.
Unbeknownst to the heroes, a silk wyrm has been
following them from the air in shadow form waiting
for the cover of darkness. Once the heroes settle in,
the silk wyrm sneaks into their camp in the hope
of surprising its prey. The silk wyrm uses shadow
form in its effort to ambush any characters that are
awake. Assume a stealth check of 25 (a roll of 15)
for the silk wyrm, making it quite difficult to spot
before it strikes.
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When the silk wyrm attacks, read:
The desert night is cool and calm, and little stirs across
the vast moonlit waste. A long, sinuous shadow suddenly
splashes across the ground as something massive hurtles
from the night sky, its toothy maw agape.
Go to Tactical Encounter 3-1: Silken Surprise.
The Terror of Tsalaxa
The assassins hired by House Tsalaxa to deal with the
characters have failed so far. However, House Tsalaxa
is now aware that the characters have found the trea-
sure of Darom Madar and are on their way to Tyr.
Eager to recover the treasure, Haneth has sent one of
his own relatives to lead a pair of skilled assassins in a
final attack against the caravan.
Tyron Tsalaxa is Haneth’s youngest cousin and
eager to prove himself to the house leader. He and his
hand-picked assassins ride to battle mounted on crod-
lus (Tyron rides the war crodlu). They plan to use the
ferocious beasts as deadly living weapons against the
characters.
If Tyron has a weakness, it is a reckless confidence
in his own skill. This overconfidence leads him to
forsake an ambush and attack the characters directly.
He believes ferocity and mobility granted by the well-
trained crodlu mounts will be more than a match
for anything the heroes can throw at them. When he
launches the attack, he and his men simply ride over
a dune into plain view and let fly on the heroes.
When Tyron attacks, read:
The desert morning dawns hot and bright, but today the
heat is not so oppressive. Perhaps it only feels this way
because you near your destination, the great city-state
of Tyr, where you will sell the fabulous treasure in the
sand skiffs.
Before you can begin counting the gold pieces in your
head, three mounted figures ride into view and halt at the
top of a dune. Could they be just desert nomads curious
about travelers? It’s not likely when you see them level their
crossbows and let loose a rain of bolts into the caravan.
When Tyron and his men attack, Rhotan Vor maneu-
vers the sand skiffs into a U-shaped barrier which
he hopes will give him, his men, and the characters
some cover from the missiles. If the characters simply
hunker beneath the skiffs with the rest the caravan
crew, however, Rhotan Vor curses them as cowards
and demands they engage the enemy and earn their
cut of the treasure.
Go to Tactical Encounter 3-2, The Terror of
Tsalaxa.
Aftermath
If the characters search the body of Tyron Tsalaxa,
they find a signet ring on his left hand bearing the
symbol of his house. Even if they don’t recognize it
as the symbol of house Tsalaxa, Rhotan Vor does. By
now, they should know the story of House Madar’s
fall at the hands of its villainous rivals. The fact that
House Tsalaxa has made numerous attempts on their
lives should prompt the characters to be circumspect
once they reach Tyr, because it would seem they have
made dire enemies even before setting foot in the
great city.
Conclusion
When the characters reach the gates of Tyr, they
have accomplished something legendary. Not only
have they found and plundered an ancient treasure
vault, they have overcome the dangers of the wastes,
The Vault of Darom Madar
of ambushes and assassins, of undead horrors … and
they’ve turned a tidy profit out of it. Rhotan Vor hap-
pily pays them the agreed upon 10 percent of the
treasure (less any sand skiffs lost) and spreads tales of
the character’s prowess among other Wavir traders.
Word of the heroes’ deeds spreads to the other great
merchant houses and soon brings lucrative offers to
their doorstep.
The heroes have also, however, made a powerful
enemy in Haneth Tsalaxa and his house, and pos-
sibly in whatever faction of Templars he has paid
to smooth his transactions in Tyr and elsewhere. It
is likely that the frustrated Tsalaxa elder will seek
revenge against the upstart heroes who robbed
him and his house of both a fortune in treasure
and the glory of bringing it home in triumph. This
will only be worsened if the characters raise a
public fuss about having been attacked by agents of
House Tsalaxa or show off Tyron’s ring as evidence
of Tsalaxa treachery. Such accusations will gain
them nothing but more intense hatred from Haneth
Tsalaxa. If Tyron was killed during the final battle, as
is likely, that serves as another strike against them.
Even though Haneth had no particular fondness for
his cousin, such a killing is still one more reason to
hate the characters and plot revenge.
Finally, should a living scion of House Madar
emerge (or even a false claimant to the line), they too
may take issue with the characters laying claim to
their ancestral wealth.
With a bit of experience under their belts, the
characters should be ready for Marauders of the Dune
Sea, which will expose them to even more adventure
on and around Tyr.
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 The Vault of Darom Madar

Encounter 1-1: Yassi, Halfling Wilder (W)

Small natural humanoid, halfling
Level 3 Artillery
XP 150
Drokan,
Dwarf Sunpriest (D)
Level 5 Artillery (Leader)

Medium natural humanoid, dwarf XP 200

Crimson Oasis
Encounter Level 3 (XP 725)
Setup
1 dwarf sun priest (D)
1 half ling wilder (W)
3 human wasteland raiders (R)
Tactics
When combat begins, regardless of whether the
Crimson Vipers surprise the characters, the human
wasteland raiders charge forward and engage the
characters with their spears while Drokan and Yassi
keep their distance and assault the heroes with
ranged attacks. Drokan targets a character engaged
in melee with bright ray to hamper the hero’s attacks
and uses sun’s blessing on a wasteland raider as soon
as one of them becomes bloodied. Yassi lashes out at a
potential enemy spellcaster with mind thrust, focusing
his attacks on a single target to gain combat advantage
and deal extra damage. The wasteland raiders fight
viciously, ganging up on a single character to take
him or her out of the fight in a single round where
possible.
The bandits know there is a bounty on their heads
and do not expect mercy from the heroes, so they
fight to the death.
HP 38; Bloodied 19
AC 15, Fortitude 14, Reflex 15, Will 16
Initiative +4
Perception +2
Speed 6 AC 18, Fortitude 17, Reflex 16, Will 18 Perception +6
Traits
Nimble Reaction
A halfling wilder gains a +2 bonus to AC against opportunity
attacks.
Combat Advantage
A halfling wilder deals 1d6 extra damage against any tZarget
granting combat advantage to it.
Standard Actions
m Club (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +8 vs. AC
Hit: 1d6 + 2 damage.
R Mind Thrust (psychic) F At-Will
Attack: Ranged 10 (one creature); +8 vs. Will
Hit: 1d10 + 3 psychic damage, and the target grants combat
advantage until the start of the wilder’s next turn.
Skills Acrobatics +9, Stealth +9, Thievery +9
Str 11 (+1) Dex 16 (+4) Wis 12 (+2)
Con 14 (+3) Int 11 (+1) Cha 17 (+4)
Alignment unaligned Languages Common
Equipment club
HP 52; Bloodied 26 Initiative +3
Speed 5 Low-light vision
Saving Throws +5 against poison effects
Traits
Stand the Ground
A dwarf sunpriest can move 1 square fewer when subject to
pull, push, or slide.
Steady-Footed
A dwarf sunpriest can make a saving throw to avoid
falling prone.
Standard Actions
m Gouge (fire, weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +12 vs. AC
Hit: 1d8 + 3 fire damage.
R Bright Ray (implement, radiant) F At-Will
Attack: Ranged 10 (one creature); +10 vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d10 + 4 radiant damage, and the target takes a -2 penalty
to attack rolls until the start of the sunpriest’s next turn.
Sun’s Blessing (fire, healing) F Encounter
Effect: One ally within 5 squares of the sunpriest regains 10 hit
points. Until the end of the sunpriest’s next turn, that ally
deals 5 extra fire damage with its melee attacks, and any
enemy that hits that ally with a melee attack takes 5 fire
damage.
Skills Dungeoneering +11, Endurance +11, Religion +9
Str 13 (+3) Dex 12 (+3) Wis 18 (+6)
Con 16 (+5) Int 15 (+4) Cha 15 (+4)
Alignment unaligned Languages Common, Dwarven
Equipment hide armor, mace, totem

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 The Vault of Darom Madar

3 Human Wasteland Raiders (R)

Medium natural humanoid, human
Level 2 Soldier
XP 125 each
Features of the Area Boulders: The three largest boulders in this area
are 10 feet high. A DC 10 Athletics check is required
HP 40; Bloodied 20 Initiative +5 Illumination: Daylight.
to climb atop of one.
AC 18, Fortitude 16, Reflex 14, Will 13 Perception +2 Dunes: The small dunes in this area are difficult
Speed 6
Oasis: This small, muddy pool is only two feet
terrain. A Medium character who falls prone in a
Standard Actions deep. It is difficult terrain.
space with dunes gains total concealment to ranged
m Dagger (weapon) F At-Will Trees/Scrub: The stunted desert trees and scrub
attacks.
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +9 vs. AC provide cover to adjacent creatures.
Hit: 1d4 + 5 damage.
M Barbed Spear (weapon) F At-Will
Requirement: The raider must not have a creature grabbed.
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +9 vs. AC
Hit: 1d8 + 5 damage, and the target is grabbed.
M Gutting Dagger (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature grabbed by the raider);
+10 vs. AC
Hit: 3d4 + 5 damage, and ongoing 5 damage (save ends).
Skills Intimidate +5
Str 18 (+5) Dex 14 (+3) Wis 12 (+2)
Con 16 (+4) Int 8 (+0) Cha 9 (+0)
Alignment unaligned Languages Common
Equipment hide armor, barbed spear, dagger

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 The Vault of Darom Madar

Encounter 1-2: The elven assassins fight to the death, having no Defiler Assassin (D)
Medium natural humanoid, human
Level 4 Artillery
XP 175
immediate means of escape. The defiler assassin,
Wasteland Assassins however, uses the speed of his mount to avoid death
HP 45; Bloodied 22
AC 16, Fortitude 15, Reflex 17, Will 15
Initiative +5
Perception +2
if possible. If the characters cannot catch the fleeing Speed 6
Encounter Level 3 (XP 700) assassin, he joins up with the assassin squad waiting Traits
to attack the heroes in the Canyon of Guthay. Defiling
Setup Whenever a defiler assassin uses an implement power, each
1 crodlu (C) Development enemy within 3 squares of it takes 2 necrotic damage.
1 defiler assassin (D) Searching the corpses of slain assassins reveals little Implement Assassin
3 elven assassins (E) other than that they were well-equipped. If the char- A defiler assassin deals 1d6 extra damage with attacks with
the implement keyword against any target granting combat
acters wait for Rhotan Vor’s caravan to catch up with
Tactics them, the dwarven trader can tell them little about
advantage to it.

The elven assassins begin combat by using critical aim
and then launching a volley of arrows at the charac-
ters while the defiler sits atop his crodlu and blasts
the characters with hand of blight. The assassins rely
solely on ranged attacks until the heroes either charge
up the dune and engage them in melee or prove to
have effective ranged attacks of their own.
Once melee is joined, the elven assassins use their
ability to shift 1 square after a successful attack with
their short swords to move into flanking positions
against the heroes. Once an elven assassin has combat
advantage against a character, it uses razor f lurry each
round. The elves use elven accuracy to reroll a missed
attack with razor flurry but not with their melee or
ranged basic attacks.
The defiler assassin uses the speed of his crodlu
mount to remain out of range of character melee
attacks. He primarily relies on hand of blight to attack
the characters at range but moves in closer to smite a
bloodied character with ashen scourge if the opportu-
nity presents itself. The defiler assassin uses defiling
scourge only if wounded or if he has used ashen scourge
during the combat. If forced into melee, he relies on
the melee attacks of his crodlu mount rather than his
own.
the identity of the mysterious assassins.
Crodlu (C) Level 3 Brute
Large natural beast (reptile) XP 150
HP 55; Bloodied 27 Initiative +3
AC 15, Fortitude 17, Reflex 15, Will 13 Perception +1
Speed 8
Standard Actions
m Beak F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +6 vs. AC
Hit: 1d8 + 4 damage.
m Claws F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +6 vs. AC
Hit: 1d6 + 4 damage.
M Pounce F At-Will
Effect: The crodlu can move its speed. Whether or not the
crodlu moves, it can use beak and claws, making each attack
against the same target. If both attacks hit, the target also
falls prone
Str 19 (+5) Dex 15 (+3) Wis 11 (+1)
Con 15 (+3) Int 3 (-3) Cha 8 (+0)
Alignment unaligned Languages –
Standard Actions
m Staff (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +7 vs. AC
Hit: 1d8 + 1 damage.
R Hand of Blight (implement, necrotic) F At-Will
Attack: Ranged 10 (one creature); +10 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d8 + 4 necrotic damage, and the target grants combat
advantage until the end of the defiler assassin’s next turn.
R Ashen Scourge (fire, implement, necrotic) F Encounter
Attack: Ranged 5 (one creature); +10 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 2d8 + 4 fire damage, and the target grants combat advan-
tage and takes ongoing 5 necrotic damage (save ends both).
Triggered Actions
Defiling Scourge (healing) F Encounter
Trigger: An enemy within 10 squares of the defiler assassin
spends a healing surge.
Effect (Free Action): The defiler assassin regains a number of hit
points equal to half the value of the triggering healing surge,
and ashen scourge recharges.
Skills Arcana +11, Bluff +9, Stealth +10
Str 13 (+3) Dex 16 (+5) Wis 10 (+2)
Con 15 (+4) Int 18 (+6) Cha 15 (+4)
Alignment evil Languages Common, Draconic
Equipment orb, spellbook

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3 Elven Assassins (E)

Medium fey humanoid, elf
Level 2 Skirmisher
XP 125 each
Features of the Area
HP 37; Bloodied 18 Initiative +6 Illumination: Daylight.
AC 16, Fortitude 14, Reflex 16, Will 14 Perception +3 Boulders: The boulders in this area are 5 to 10
Speed 7 feet high. A DC 10 Athletics check is required to
Traits climb on top of one.
Wild Step
Dune: The dunes are difficult terrain, as marked
An elf ignores difficult terrain when it shifts.
on the map (by triangles).
Standard Actions
m Obsidian Short Sword (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +7 vs. AC
Hit: 1d6 + 3 damage, and the elven assassin shifts 1 square.
r Bone Bow (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Ranged 20 (one creature); +7 vs. AC
Hit: 1d10 + 3 damage.
M Razor Flurry (weapon) F At-Will
Effect: The elven assassin makes two obsidian short sword
attacks against the same target. If both attacks hit, the
target takes ongoing 5 damage (save ends).
Minor Actions
Critical Aim (weapon) F Recharge 4 5 6
Effect: The elven assassin’s bone bow gains the high crit quality
until the start of its next turn.
Free Actions
Elven Accuracy F Encounter
Effect: The elven assassin rerolls one of its attack rolls and uses
the second result.
Skills Athletics +8, Bluff +7, Stealth +9
Str 14 (+3) Dex 17 (+4) Wis 14 (+3)
Con 13 (+2) Int 13 (+2) Cha 13 (+2)
Alignment evil Languages Common, Elven
Equipment obsidian short sword, bone bow, 20 bone arrows

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 The Vault of Darom Madar

Encounter 2-1: The skeletons, once soldiers of House Madar, hang 9 Decrepit Skeletons (S)
Medium natural animate
Level 1 Minion
XP 25 each
back and pelt the characters with ranged attacks
Cavern of while keeping spread out to avoid area effects. The
HP 1; a missed attack never damages a minion. Initiative +3
AC 16, Fortitude 13, Reflex 14,Will 13 Perception +2
skeletons enter melee only if cornered.
Eternal Conflict Speed 6 Darkvision
Immune disease; poison
Encounter Level 4 (XP 800)
Development Standard Actions
Characters examining destroyed undead can find m Obsidian Longsword (weapon) F At-Will

Setup
1 black reaver zombie (B)
9 decrepit skeletons (S)
3 zombies (Z)
When the undead animate, read:
The cavern suddenly explodes into unnatural life as nearly
a dozen corpses animate and climb unsteadily to their
feet. Zombies and skeletons armored in rotting tatters
and clutching an assortment of broken, decrepit weapons
unleash a chorus of guttural howls and then lurch to the
attack.
Tactics
The zombies and skeletons in this encounter attack as
two separate groups. Although they don’t work against
signet rings, talismans, and other bits and pieces
bearing the marks of both House Tsalaxa and House
Madar. A simple DC 10 History check allows the
characters to correctly identify the symbols of both
houses.
Black Reaver Zombie (B) Level 5 Lurker
Medium natural humanoid (undead) XP 200
HP 51; Bloodied 25 Initiative +10
AC 19, Fortitude 17, Reflex 19, Will 16 Perception +2
Speed 7 Blind, blindsight 10
Immune blinded, disease, gaze, poison; Resist 10 necrotic 3 Zombies (Z) Level 2 Brute
Traits
Scoured by Light
A black reaver zombie that takes radiant damage cannot use
shadow burst until the end of its next turn.
Standard Actions
m Bite (necrotic) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +6 vs. AC
Hit: 4 damage.
r Bone Shortbow (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Ranged 15/30 (one creature); +6 vs. AC
Hit: 3 damage.
Str 15 (+2) Dex 17 (+3) Wis 14 (+2)
Con 13 (+1) Int 3 (–4) Cha 3 (–4)
Alignment Unaligned Languages —
Equipment heavy shield, obsidian longsword, bone shortbow,
arrows (30)
Medium natural animate XP 125 each
HP 40; Bloodied 20 Initiative –1
AC 13, Fortitude 13, Reflex 9, Will 10 Perception +0
Speed 4 Darkvision
Immune disease, poison; Resist 10 necrotic;
Vulnerable 5 radiant

each other, they don’t go out of their way to help one
another. This is because there is still enough emo-
tional residue in the rotting brains of these undead
to recreate some of the animosity between the two
groups when they were alive.
The black reaver zombie was once a defiler assas-
sin in the employ of House Tsalaxa. It uses shadow
burst to teleport into the middle of the characters and
catch as many as possible in the resulting zone of
darkness, then focuses its attacks on blinded charac-
ters. The rest of the zombies do what zombies do best:
they lurch into melee with the closest character.
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +10 vs. AC Traits
Hit: 1d6 + 3 damage plus 1d6 necrotic damage, or plus 3d6 Zombie Weakness
necrotic damage against a creature that could not see the Any critical hit to the zombie reduces it to 0 hit
points instantly.
zombie at the start of the zombie’s turn.
Move Actions Standard Actions
Shadow Burst (teleportation, zone) F Recharge 4 5 6 m Slam F At-Will
Effect: the black reaver teleports 5 squares, and then creates Attack: Melee 1 (one creature) +6 vs. AC
a zone in a close burst 1 that lasts until the start of its next Hit: 2d6 + 2 damage.
turn. The zone blocks line of sight for all creatures except M Zombie Grab F At-Will
the zombie, and any other creature except the zombie is Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +4 vs. Reflex
blinded while within the zone. Hit: The target is grabbed (until escape). Checks made to
Skills Stealth +11 escape the zombie’s grab take a -5 penalty.
Str 14 (+3) Dex 6 (–1) Wis 8 (+0)
Str 10 (+2) Dex 19 (+6) Wis 10 (+2)
Con 15 (+4) Int 8 (+1) Cha 12 (+3) Con 10 (+1) Int 1 (–4) Cha 3 (–3)
Alignment chaotic evil Languages Common Alignment Unaligned Languages —

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 The Vault of Darom Madar

Features of the Area

Illumination: Darkness.
Ceiling: The ceiling is 15 feet high.
Corpses: Squares with common corpses (not
undead) are difficult terrain.
Rubble: Squares with rubble are difficult terrain.

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Encounter 2-2: Crypt
of Sorrow
Encounter Level 4+ (XP 875+)
Setup
Dynera Madar, weeping wraith (D)
Lyos & Taran Madar, phantom warriors (P)
4+ wisp wraiths (W)
Sorrowstone hazard (S)
When the undead attack, read:
Suddenly, the terrible sound of a woman weeping fills
the room and numerous ghostly shadows rise from the
sarcophagi and floors. The specters glide silently across the
room, their ghostly visages twisted in rage and grief.
Tactics
When battle begins, the wisp wraiths engage the
characters in melee. Lyos and Taran take up positions
next to the sorrowstone. The two phantom warriors
hope to lure the characters adjacent to the sorrow-
stone to trigger its terrible power before engaging the
heroes. Once the phantom warriors enter melee, they
fight as a pair, focusing their attacks on a single char-
acter to gain the benefits of phantom tactics.
The wisp wraiths use phasing to move through
the floors and gain advantageous positions against
the heroes. They use shadow caress indiscriminately,
simply targeting the nearest character with their
necrotic touch.
Dynera Madar does not enter melee immediately.
Instead, the weeping wraith attacks from a distance
with woeful blast targeted against obvious spellcast-
ers or heroes not engaged in melee. Dynera enters
melee with her sorrowful touch when one of her sons is
destroyed.
The undead fight to their destruction.
Dynera Madar, Level 5 Controller (Leader)
Weeping Wraith (D)
Medium shadow humanoid XP 200
HP 44; Bloodied 22 Initiative +2
AC 16, Fortitude 16, Reflex 16, Will 17 Perception +2
Speed Fly 6 (hover) Darkvision
Immune disease; poison; Resist insubstantial
Traits
O Weeping Aura (psychic) F Aura 2
Living creatures within the aura take a -1 penalty to all
defenses.
Standard Actions
m Sorrowful Touch (necrotic, psychic) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature): +9 vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d6 + 3 necrotic damage, and the target is grief stricken
(save ends). While grief stricken, the target gains vulnerable
psychic 5 and is dazed.
R Woeful Blast (psychic) F At-Will
Attack: Ranged 10 (one creature); +9 vs. Will
Hit: 1d8 + 4 psychic damage, and the target takes a -2 penalty
to attack rolls (save ends).
Triggered Actions
C Woeful Shriek (psychic) F Encounter
Attack: Close burst 5 (enemies in burst); +8 vs. Will
Hit: 2d8 + 4 psychic damage, and the target is grief stricken
(save ends). While grief stricken, the target gains vulnerable
psychic 5 and is dazed.
Skills Stealth +7
Str 10 (+2) Dex 11 (+2) Wis 10 (+2)
Con 9 (+1) Int 10 (+2) Cha 16 (+5)
Alignment Unaligned Languages Common
The Vault of Darom Madar
Lyos & Taran Madar,
Phantom Warriors (P)
Level 4 Soldier
Medium shadow humanoid XP 175 each
HP 40; Bloodied 20 Initiative +5
AC 18, Fortitude 16, Reflex 15, Will 16 Perception +2
Speed 6, Fly 6 (hover); phasing darkvision
Immune disease; poison; Resist insubstantial
Traits
Phantom Tactics
A phantom warrior has combat advantage against any target
that has another phantom warrior adjacent to it.
Standard Actions
m Phantom Sword (necrotic) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +9 vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d8 + 2 necrotic damage, and the target is marked until
the end of the phantom warrior’s next turn.
Str 14 (+4) Dex 12 (+3) Wis 11 (+2)
Con 12 (+3) Int 10 (+2) Cha 14 (+4)
Alignment Any Languages Common
4 Wisp Wraiths (W) Level 1 Minion
Medium shadow humanoid XP 25 each
AC 13, Fortitude 11, Reflex 15, Will 12 Initiative +3
HP 1; a missed attack never damages a minion. Perception +0
Speed Fly 6 (hover); phasing darkvision
Immune disease, poison; Resist insubstantial, 10 necrotic;
Vulnerable 5 radiant
Standard Actions
m Shadow Caress (necrotic) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +4 vs. Reflex
Hit: 4 necrotic damage, and the target is slowed until the end
of the wisp wraith’s next turn
Move Actions
Shadow Glide F Encounter
The wisp wraith shifts up to 6 squares.
Skills Stealth +8
Str 3 (–4) Dex 17 (+3) Wis 10 (+0)
Con 13 (+1) Int 4 (–3) Cha 15 (+2)
Alignment Chaotic Evil Languages Common
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Features of the Area Sarcophagi: The smashed sarcophagus is difficult

terrain that provides cover. The intact sarcophagi are
Sorrowstone Level 4 Warder Illumination: Darkness
4 feet high and provide cover. A character can jump
Hazard (S) XP 175 Ceiling: The ceiling is 15 feet high.
atop an intact sarcophagus with a DC 15 Athletics
This huge stone obelisk stands 10 feet tall and has been carved Rubble: Squares with rubble are difficult terrain.
with the names of House Madar ancestors. A palpable aura of check.
grief and loss surrounds the stone in a heavy shroud. Sorrowstone: The sorrowstone is blocking terrain
Hazard: This stone, imbued with grief and rage, has become that provides cover.
a battery of negative emotion created by the tragic events
that befell House Madar. It leeches negative emotion from
nearby living creatures and uses this stolen energy to create
wisp wraiths.
Perception
No perception check is necessary to notice the stone.
Trigger
When a living creature enters a square adjacent to the
sorrowstone, it makes the following attack.
Attack
Immediate Reaction Melee 1
Attack: +7 vs. Will
Hit: 1d8 + 3 psychic damage, and a wisp wraith appears in an
unoccupied square adjacent to the target. The sorrowstone
can create only a single wisp wraith from any one living
creature. A creature whose negative emotions have already
fueled the creation of a wisp wraith still suffers psychic
damage from the sorrowstone’s attack.
Countermeasures
The sorrowstone can be attacked (AC 14, Fortitude 10;
hp 60). When the hazard is reduced below half its starting
hit points, it can no longer create wisp wraiths. When the
hazard is reduced to 0 hit points, it is destroyed.

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Encounter 2-4: The
Rage of Darom
Madar
Encounter Level 5 (XP 875)
Setup
Darom Madar, lesser oath wight (D)
Treasure (T)
Tactics
Darom Madar opens combat by moving forward and
blasting the party with frustration’s fury. He tries to
catch as many heroes in the blast as possible. He then
spends one of his action points to follow with rotting
touch on an adjacent character and allows the damage
to trigger oath’s agony on the same target.
When he is bloodied, he targets a spellcaster with
accursed gaze each round, hoping to turn his target
into a living weapon. When he returns because of
promised return, he appears adjacent to a bloodied
character and spends his last action point to make
two rotting touch attacks against the unfortunate hero.
He also triggers oath’s agony on the stricken character
for a triple dose of necrotic pain. In the second round
after Darom rejoins the fight with promised return, he
uses frustration’s fury again and then resorts to rotting
touch and oath’s agony until either he or the characters
are destroyed.
The Vault of Darom Madar
Darom Madar, Level 4 Solo Controller Minor Actions
Lesser Oath Wight (D) R Accursed Gaze (charm) F At-will (1/round)
Medium natural humanoid (undead), human
HP 224; Bloodied 112
XP 875
Initiative +4
Requirement: The wight must be bloodied.
Attack: Ranged 5 (one creature); +8 vs. Will
AC 18, Fortitude 16, Reflex 15, Will 17 Perception +2
Hit: The target is dominated until the end of the wight’s
Speed 6 Darkvision
next turn.
Immune disease, poison; Resist 10 necrotic;
Triggered Actions
Vulnerable 10 radiant
C Oath’s Agony (necrotic) F Recharge 5 6
Saving Throws +2; Action Points 2
Trigger: An adjacent enemy takes damage.
Traits
Attack (Immediate Reaction): Close burst 1 (triggering enemy);
O Inevitable Failure F Aura 2
+6 vs. Will
Enemies within the aura that aren’t dominated by the wight
Hit: 1d6 + 4 necrotic damage, and the target is dazed until the
take a -2 penalty to attack rolls, skill checks, and ability checks.
Standard Actions
end of the wight’s next turn.
Promised Return F Encounter
m Rotting Touch (necrotic) F At-Will
Trigger: The oath wight drops to 0 hit points.
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +8 vs. Fortitude
Effect (No Action): The oath wight is removed from play until the
Hit: 1d8 + 4 necrotic damage, and the target cannot regain hit
start of its next turn. The wight then appears with hit points
points until the end of the wight’s next turn.
equal to its bloodied value in an unoccupied square within 5
C Frustration’s Fury (charm, psychic) F Recharge when the
wight uses promised return.
squares of its last location.
Str 12 (+3) Dex 14 (+4) Wis 10 (+2)
Attack: Close burst 5 (enemies in burst); +6 vs. Will
Con 16 (+5) Int 12 (+3) Cha 18 (+6)
Hit: 1d10 + 4 psychic damage, and the target uses a free action
Alignment evil Languages Common
to make an at-will attack of the wight’s choice, which can
include a charge, against a creature of the wight’s choice.
Miss: Half damage, and the target is dazed until the end of the
wight’s next turn.
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Features of the Area

Illumination: Darkness
Ceiling: The ceiling is 15 feet high.
Treasure: Squares with treasure are difficult
terrain.

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 The Vault of Darom Madar

Encounter 2-5: Defiler Assassin (D)

Medium natural humanoid, human
Level 4 Artillery
XP 175
3 Elven Assassins (E)
Medium fey humanoid, elf
Level 2 Skirmisher
XP 125 each

Assassin Ambush HP 45; Bloodied 22

Encounter Level 4 (XP 900)
Setup
1 defiler assassin (D)
3 elven assassins (E)
2 goliath thugs (G)
As soon as the characters exit the vault and reenter
the Canyon of Guthay, the assassins are waiting for
them. Pay close attention to how the players described
their actions after the fight against Darom Madar,
because it can determine whether they enter this
combat with the benefit of a short rest. The assassins
make no attempt to hide and simply attack the heroes
on sight.
Tactics
As soon as the assassins see the characters, the
goliath thugs use stone’s endurance and rush forward
into melee. The elven assassins open fire with their
bone bows, and the defiler assassin blasts the heroes
with hand of blight. In the second round, the elven
assassins and the defiler assassin slowly move for-
ward while continuing to use ranged attacks. The
goliath thugs both use push through on the closest
character and follow that up with a greatclub attack
on the prone hero.
In the third round, the elven assassins abandon
their bows and join the goliaths in melee. The defiler
assassin chooses this point to use ashen scourge on a
likely spellcaster, preferably one who is bloodied or at
least injured.
All the assassins fight to the death.
AC 16, Fortitude 15, Reflex 17, Will 15
Initiative +5
Perception +2
Speed 6 Speed 7
Traits
Defiling
Whenever a defiler assassin uses an implement power, each
enemy within 3 squares of it takes 2 necrotic damage.
Implement Assassin
A defiler assassin deals 1d6 extra damage with attacks with
the implement keyword against any target granting combat
advantage to it.
Standard Actions
m Staff (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +7 vs. AC
Hit: 1d8 + 1 damage.
R Hand of Blight (implement, necrotic) F At-Will
Attack: Ranged 10 (one creature); +10 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d8 + 4 necrotic damage, and the target grants combat
advantage until the end of the defiler assassin’s next turn.
R Ashen Scourge (fire, implement, necrotic) F Encounter
Attack: Ranged 5 (one creature); +10 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 2d8 + 4 fire damage, the target grants combat advantage
and takes ongoing 5 necrotic damage (save ends both)
Triggered Actions
Defiling Scourge (healing) F Encounter
Trigger: An enemy within 10 squares of the defiler assassin
spends a healing surge.
Effect (Free Action): The defiler assassin regains a number of hit
points equal to half the value of the triggering healing surge,
and ashen scourge recharges.
Skills Arcana +11, Bluff +9, Stealth +10
Str 13 (+3) Dex 16 (+5) Wis 10 (+2)
Con 15 (+4) Int 18 (+6) Cha 15 (+4)
Alignment evil Languages Common, Draconic
Equipment orb, spellbook
HP 37; Bloodied 18
AC 16, Fortitude 14, Reflex 16, Will 14
Initiative +6
Perception +3
Traits
Wild Step
An elf ignores difficult terrain when it shifts.
Standard Actions
m Obsidian Short Sword (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +7 vs. AC
Hit: 1d6 + 3 damage, and the elven assassin shifts 1 square.
r Bone Bow (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Ranged 20 (one creature); +7 vs. AC
Hit: 1d10 + 3 damage.
M Razor Flurry (weapon) F At-Will
Effect: The elven assassin makes two obsidian short sword
attacks against the same target. If both attacks hit, the
target takes ongoing 5 damage (save ends).
Minor Actions
Critical Aim (weapon) F Recharge 4 5 6
Effect: The elven assassin’s bone bow gains the high crit quality
until the start of its next turn.
Free Actions
Elven Accuracy F Encounter
Effect: The elven assassin rerolls one of its attack rolls and uses
the second result.
Skills Athletics +8, Bluff +7, Stealth +9
Str 14 (+3) Dex 17 (+4) Wis 14 (+3)
Con 13 (+2) Int 13 (+2) Cha 13 (+2)
Alignment evil Languages Common, Elven
Equipment obsidian short sword, bone bow, 20 bone arrows

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 The Vault of Darom Madar

2 Goliath Thugs (G)

Medium natural humanoid
Level 4 Brute
XP 175 each
Features of the Area Boulders: The boulders are 10 feet high. A DC 10
Athletics check is required to climb atop one.
HP 65; Bloodied 32 Initiative +4 Illumination: Daylight.
Trees/Scrub: The stunted desert trees and scrub
AC 16, Fortitude 18, Reflex 15, Will 15 Perception +4 Dunes: The dunes are difficult terrain, as marked
Speed 6
provide cover to adjacent creatures.
on the map. A Medium character who falls prone in
Standard Actions a space with dunes gains total concealment to ranged
m Greatclub (weapon) F At-Will
attacks.
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +7 vs. AC
Hit: 2d6 + 5 damage.
Minor Actions
Push Through F Recharge when first bloodied
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +5 vs. Fortitude
Hit: The goliath pushes the target, knocks it prone, and shifts 1
square into the square the target vacated.
Stone’s Endurance F Encounter
Effect: The goliath gains resist 5 to all damage until the end of
its next turn.
Triggered Actions
M Vengeful Clout (weapon)
Trigger: The goliath drops to 0 hit points.
Attack (Immediate Interrupt): Melee 1 (one creature);
+5 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 3d6 + 5 damage, and the target falls prone.
Str 20 (+7) Dex 14 (+4) Wis 15 (+4)
Con 15 (+4) Int 11 (+2) Cha 10 (+2)
Alignment evil Languages Common
Equipment hide armor, great club

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Encounter 3-1:
Silken Surprise
Encounter Level 3 (XP 750)
Setup
1 silk wyrm adult (S)
Tactics
The silk wyrm singles out a target and concentrates
on it. If it can surprise its target, it uses bite in the
surprise round and then follows up with another bite
in the first full round. If the silk wyrm’s target is not
at least immobilized after the first round, then on
the second round, it uses serpent strike to shift away,
followed by mesmerizing dread to pull its target along
with it. It then spends an action point to make two bite
attacks against the target.
If the silk wyrm is unable to kill or immobilize its
initial target and the rest of the characters are alerted
to its presence, it does not shrink from combat. When
confronted with multiple foes, it uses wyrm strike to
attack two characters and serpent strike to shift out of
disadvantageous positions. The silk wyrm relies on
silk strands to keep its victims wrapped up, and uses
feed on any immobilized, restrained, or helpless tar-
gets when the opportunity arises.
Silk Wyrm Adult (S) Level 3 Solo Skirmisher
Large natural magical beast (reptile) XP 750
HP 174; Bloodied 87 Initiative +7
AC 17, Fortitude 16, Reflex 17, Will 14 Perception +3
Speed 6, fly 8 (clumsy) Low-light vision C Mesmerizing Dread (fear, psychic) F Recharge 4 5 6
Saving Throws +5; Action Points 2 Attack: Close burst 5 (enemies in burst); +6 vs. Will
Traits
Blood Scent
A silk wyrm’s attacks against bloodied creatures ignore
concealment.
Standard Actions
m Bite (poison) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 2 (one creature); +8 vs. AC
Hit: 1d10 + 3 poison damage, and the target is slowed
(save ends).
First Failed Saving Throw: The target is immobilized (save ends).
Second Failed Saving Throw: The target is helpless (save ends).
M Feed (healing) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 2 (one immobilized, restrained, or helpless
creature); +6 vs. Fortitude
Hit: The target loses 1 healing surge and the silk wyrm regains
10 hit points.
M Wyrm Strike F At-Will
Effect: The wyrm uses bite twice, making each attack against a
different target.
The Vault of Darom Madar
Move Actions
Serpent Strike F At-Will
Effect: The wyrm shifts half its speed.
Minor Actions
Hit: 1d8 + 3 psychic damage, and the wyrm slides the target
3 squares. The target takes a -2 penalty to all defenses until
the end of the wyrm’s next turn.
Shadow Form F Recharge when first bloodied
Effect: The wyrm gains insubstantial and phasing. While in
this form, the wyrm gains a +5 bonus to Stealth checks but
cannot attack. It can resume its normal form as a
free action.
Triggered Actions
M Silk Strands (acid) F At-Will
Trigger: An enemy hits the wyrm with a melee or close attack.
Effect: Before the attack, the wyrm shifts 1 square.
Attack (Immediate Reaction): Melee 3 (triggering enemy);
+6 vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d6 + 3 acid damage, and the target is restrained
(save ends).
Skills Stealth +10
Str 14 (+3) Dex 18 (+5) Wis 14 (+3)
Con 14 (+3) Int 7 (-1) Cha 11 (+1)
Alignment unaligned Languages –
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Features of the Area

Illumination: Night.
Boulders: The boulders are 10 feet high. A DC 10
Athletics check is required to climb atop one.
Dunes: The dunes are difficult terrain, as marked
on the map. A Medium character who falls prone in
a space with dunes gains total concealment to ranged
attacks.
Sand Skiffs: The sand skiffs sit roughly 2 feet off
the ground, leaving room for a prone character to
crawl beneath one. A character beneath a sand skiff
has superior cover (-5 to attack rolls).

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Encounter 3-2: The
Terror of Tsalaxa
Encounter Level 6 (XP 1,250)
Setup
2 crodlus (C)
Tyron Tsalaxa (T)
1 war crodlu (W)
2 veteran assassins (V)
Tactics
Tyron and his assassins make good use of their crod-
lus’ mobility during the fight. When combat begins,
they spend a standard action to open fire on the
characters with ranged attacks and then use their
mount’s movement to stay out of melee. If the charac-
ters prove to have potent ranged attacks of their own,
the veteran assassins dismount and send their crodlus
into melee with the characters. The beasts have been
trained for this type of combat and eagerly pounce
into the fray. The veteran assassins continue to fire
their crossbows, moving steadily forward until they
are within melee range, at which time they switch to
their long swords.
The Vault of Darom Madar
Tyron keeps his mount and snipes with his hand Tyron Tsalaxa (T)
Medium natural humanoid, human
Level 5 Elite Lurker
XP 400
crossbow until the veteran assassins enter melee. At
that time he spurs his mount into a charge and uses
HP 102; Bloodied 51
AC 19, Fortitude 15, Reflex 17, Will 15
Initiative +9
Perception +3
pouncing mount on a character that appears wounded. Speed 6
Then, like his men, he dismounts and fights apart Saving Throws +2; Action Points 1
from his crodlu. He seeks out the most potent melee- Traits
oriented character to engage. Tyron holds onto his Combat Advantage
hand crossbow and uses double sting each round, Tyron deals 1d6 extra damage against any target granting
all the while shifting about the battle field to gain combat advantage to him.
combat advantage through a flank where possible. Standard Actions
m Rapier (weapon) F At-Will
Tyron is fatally overconfident in his ability; he
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +9 vs. AC
fights to the death. Even when bloodied and obviously
losing, he refuses to believe he can be beaten. The
Hit: 2d6 + 3 damage, and Tyron shifts 1 square.
r Hand Crossbow (weapon) F At-Will
veteran assassins also refuse to surrender but fight Attack: Ranged 10/20 (one creature); +9 vs. AC
desperately to the end. Hit: 1d6 + 3 damage, and ongoing 5 poison damage
(save ends).
2 Crodlus (C) Level 3 Brute M Double Sting F At-Will
Large natural beast (reptile) XP 150 Effect: Tyron makes a rapier and a hand crossbow attack, each
HP 55; Bloodied 27 Initiative +3 against a different target. He does not draw an opportunity
AC 15, Fortitude 17, Reflex 15, Will 13 Perception +1 attack from the target of the rapier attack when making the
Speed 8 hand crossbow attack.
Standard Actions Minor Actions
m Beak F At-Will C Gaudy Feint F Recharge 6
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +8 vs. AC Attack: Close burst 3 (enemies in burst); +6 vs. Will
Hit: 1d8 + 4 damage. Hit: The target grants combat advantage to Tyron until the
m Claws F At-Will end of his next turn.
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +8 vs. AC Skills Bluff +9, Insight +8, Stealth +10
Hit: 1d6 + 4 damage. Str 15 (+4) Dex 17 (+5) Wis 12 (+3)
M Pounce F At-Will Con 14 (+4) Int 13 (+3) Cha 15 (+4)
Effect: The crodlu can move its speed. Whether or not it moves, Alignment evil Languages Common
it can use beak and claws, making each attack against the Equipment leather armor, obsidian rapier, hand crossbow,
same target. If both attacks hit, the target also falls prone 10 poisoned bolts
Str 19 (+5) Dex 15 (+3) Wis 11 (+1)
Con 15 (+3) Int 3 (-3) Cha 8 (+0)
Alignment unaligned Languages –
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2 Veteran Assassins (V) Level 4 Skirmisher
Medium natural humanoid, humanoid XP 175
HP 54; Bloodied 27 Initiative +7
AC 18, Fortitude 16, Reflex 16, Will 15 Perception +4
Speed 6 Speed 8
Standard Actions
m Bone Longsword (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +9 vs. AC
Hit: 1d8 + 3 damage. If the target is granting combat advan-
tage to the veteran assassin, the target takes ongoing 5
damage (save ends).
r Crossbow (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Ranged 20 (one creature); +9 vs. AC
Hit: 1d8 + 3 damage.
M No Escape (weapon) F Recharge 5 6
Requirement: The veteran assassin must have combat advan-
tage against the target.
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +9 vs. AC
Hit: 2d8 + 3 damage, and the target falls prone and is slowed
(save ends).
Minor Actions
Flanking Step F At-Will
Effect: The veteran assassin can shift 1 square as a minor action
if the shift puts it into a flanking position against an enemy.
Skills Athletics +10, Bluff +8, Stealth +10
Str 16 (+5) Dex 17 (+5) Wis 14 (+4)
Con 14 (+4) Int 13 (+3) Cha 13 (+3)
Alignment evil Languages Common
Equipment bone longsword, crossbow, 10 bolts
The Vault of Darom Madar
War Crodlu (W) Level 5 Brute
Large natural beast (reptile) XP 200
HP 76; Bloodied 38 Initiative +5
AC 17, Fortitude 19, Reflex 17, Will 15 Perception +3
Standard Actions
m Beak F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +10 vs. AC
Hit: 2d6 + 3 damage.
m Claws F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +10 vs. AC
Hit: 1d8 + 4 damage.
M Pounce F At-Will
Effect: The crodlu can move its speed. Whether or not it moves,
it can use beak and claws, making each attack against the
same target. If both attacks hit, the target also falls prone
Triggered Actions
Pouncing Mount (mount) F Encounter
Trigger: The crodlu charges an enemy while mounted by a
friendly rider of 5th level or higher.
Effect (No Action): The crodlu’s rider can make a melee basic
attack as a free action against the target of the crodlu’s
charge.
Str 20 (+7) Dex 16 (+5) Wis 13 (+3)
Con 16 (+5) Int 3 (-2) Cha 8 (+1)
Alignment unaligned Languages –
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 The Vault of Darom Madar

Features of the Area Dunes: The dunes are difficult terrain, as marked About the Author
Aeryn “Blackdirge” Rudel has been a professional game
on the map. A Medium character who falls prone in
Illumination: Daylight. designer since 2005. His recent author credits include The
a space with dunes gains total concealment to ranged Lost Cistern of Aravek, Chaos Scar: Crawling Fane, and Chaos Scar:
Boulders: The boulders are 10 feet high. A DC 10
attacks. Dead by Dawn. Aeryn currently lives in Seattle, Washington
Athletics check is required to climb atop one.
Sand Skiffs: The sand skiffs sit roughly 2 feet off with his wife Melissa, a nongamer whose tolerance for her
Dry Oasis: This area was once a vibrant oasis, but husband’s geekery borders on the supernatural.
the ground, leaving room for a prone character to
the water ran dry years ago. The pool is filled with
crawl beneath one. A character beneath a sand skiff
a thick layer of silt which is very difficult to move
has superior cover (-5 to attack rolls).
through and counts as difficult terrain.

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37
 Campaign Workshop:
Hero Battle: Elminster
an encounter for paragon or
epic player characters
By Chris Sims
illustration by Alexi Aparin
TM & © 2010 Wizards of the Coast LLC All rights reserved.

Learn ye well the lesson of the pebble that begets a landslide. Likewise a
single ­betrayal unleashed the Spellplague, whose consequences yet dance
and ­stagger across Toril, and beyond.
 —Elminster, 1479 DR

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4

Within Shadowdale dwells a living legend, a man
who has seen much of what Toril and its connected
worlds offer. From humble origins, he has been a
warrior, a brigand, a thief, a wizard, a devotee of the
gods, and even, at one time, a woman. He has walked
among the heavens, and he has been through hell.
The love of a goddess raised him up, and the treach-
ery of another deity laid him low again. In countless
ways, Faerûn followed him. Still Elminster’s name
falls from lips in the recounting of mighty deeds—his
own and those he has aided or encouraged.
Mystra’s death at the hands of Cyric stilled one
immortal heart and broke another. The unraveling
of the magic Mystra kept bridled in her Weave undid
more than a few mages, and it unhinged the minds of
more. With her undoing nearly came Elminster. This
loss of power has taken its toll on the Old Sage. Want-
ing little more than to be left alone, he now dwells in
the Silverhand farm in Shadowdale with no one less
than the erstwhile Witch Queen of Aglarond, Alassra
Shentrantra Silverhand, the Simbul.
Rumors have said as much, but the rumors also
assume that the Simbul takes care of Elminster.
The reverse is actually true. The Spellplague left the
Simbul weak of mind, hardly able to contain the ener-
gies within her. To help the woman that has become
his lover, Elminster makes and acquires items of
power for her to consume and stave off the madness
her condition brings for a while longer. He has little
time for anything else, treating almost any visitor as
an unwelcome distraction.
This scenario assumes much about the nature of
the Simbul’s sickness, and it presupposes that Elmin-
ster finally fails in his attempts to help her.
Campaign Workshop: Hero Battle
Encounter Background They never returned. Dalefolk also witnessed an iron
dragon headed to the site, but no one saw it come
The Simbul went mad, and the Sage of Shadowdale
back.
was forced to defend himself against her hunger. His
The fey of Shadowdale then detected a disturbing
victory in that grim battle might be worse than if he
development. Something was tapping the geomagi-
had lost. Elminster destroyed the Simbul. In so doing,
cal energy around the River Ashaba. The drawing of
however, he unleashed what she held within her.
power from this source has become dangerous to the
Like a victim of his own bard’s tongue with his words
land, and small natural disasters—tremors, sinkholes,
about the Spellplague in the Year of the Ageless One,
and spontaneous mote eruptions—have started to
Elminster has become infected with remnants of the
occur. Strange amorphous beings, possibly sharns,
cataclysm that occurred long ago. At present, he too
have been seen in the Druid’s Grove. Localized
hungers.
plaguelands have sprung up only to disappear in short
Now the man who willingly gave up villainy has
order.
been unwillingly cast into the role of villain again.
Lady Addee Ulphor sends for well-known heroes to
He has become a threat to the Dalelands, and left
look into these occurrences. Investigation of the areas
unchecked, he might become a greater threat still.
where strangeness has occurred is needed. However,
The characters in your campaign have to face this
priority goes to the task of seeing what happened at
fallen myth to end the threat. But the clever and the
the Silverhand farm.
wise might save the Old Sage from himself.
What the Characters Know What’s Happening?
Elminster has absorbed the Spellplague energies the
Shadowdale folk witnessed from afar the arcane
Simbul once kept in check. Now he is crazy. In his
inferno that was the battle between Elminster and the
insanity, he has learned he can tap the land for sus-
Simbul. Magical elements lit the sky with their varied
tenance and power. His tapping into the geomagical
colors for a long while one summer night. Thunder
power has begun to infect the nearby land with what
pealed and unnatural sounds echoed through the
he carries in his body, creating warping effects like
dale. Silence finally settled in. The world held its
those of the Spellplague. The infection is spreading.
breath.
In his state, despite his normal goodness, Elmin-
Then a vortex of dark clouds and violet fire
ster knows only foes. He suspects anyone who comes
erupted in the same place. An inhuman scream thun-
is a greedy usurper of his rightful property. Those
dered for miles, waking those who had snatched some
who face him, such as the characters, have no time
sleep after the earlier disturbance. An eerie storm
to negotiate. Death was the fate of those who came
raged across the dale that night, pouring rain so thick
before. Even the iron dragon Angkus failed to escape
that some said all the gods were weeping.
the Old Sage’s wrath.
Everyone nearby knew the location of these
events—the old Silverhand farm. A few folks were
even brave enough to go see what had happened.
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39

Silverhand Farm
Encounter Level 21 (12,000 XP)
Setup
Elminster (E)
The characters come to the scene from the area
marked as their approach. Due to his connection to
the land, Elminster knows they’ve come.
When the characters see the area, read:
If this woodland clearing ever enclosed a farm, no sign
remains besides what could be a pond on the far side. In
place of a house and outbuildings is a scorched crater.
Plants and trees are burned and flattened near the
depression. In the center of the crater, at its deepest point,
are the blasted remains of a dragon. Around the bones are
runes and stone nodules that look skull-like. Small bursts of
blue fire dance on the runes and the stones.
In the center of it all is an old, bearded man with
white hair. Red robes hang in tatters about him, revealing
a muscular form. An ornate scabbard hangs from his
ruined belt, but the blade is in his right hand, point in the
ground. He eyes you darkly, blue light flickering in his eyes.
He snatches a smoking pipe from his mouth with a clack
against his teeth.
“I’ve told ye to leave me be. Now ye’ve come for my
power, have ye? Ye’ll not have it!”
Elminster attacks immediately.
Arcana Check (Minor Action; DC 23):
Elminster is using the arcane arrangement of runes to
draw on the geomagical energy moving through the area.
Elminster is carrying a huge amount of arcane power,
having drawn it from the magic of the environment. He is
sure to be more potent while he stays in that mystical nexus.
Grounding yourself in the nexus could be beneficial.
Campaign Workshop: Hero Battle
Elminster Aumar Level 19 Solo Controller C Ragefire Nova (fear, fire, psychic) F Recharge 6
Medium natural humanoid, human XP 12,000
Attack: Close burst 2, close burst 3 while bloodied (creatures in
HP 728; Bloodied 364 Initiative +13
burst); +22 vs. Will
AC 33, Fortitude 31, Reflex 32, Will 30 Perception +14
Hit: 4d10 + 16 fire damage, and ongoing 15 psychic damage
Speed 6, teleport 6
(save ends), and Elminster pushes the target up to its
Saving Throws +2; Action Points 2
speed + 1.
Traits
Miss: Half damage, and Elminster pushes the target 3 squares.
O Mystic’s Clarity F Aura 3
Minor Actions
While Elminster is not bloodied, enemies in the aura take a C Fire Strike (fire, force) F At-Will (1/round while not
–2 penalty to saving throws, and Elminster scores a critical hit
bloodied)
against them on a natural 19–20.
Attack: Close blast 3 (creatures in blast); +22 vs. Reflex
Rage of the Sage
Hit: 1d12 + 5 fire and force damage.
While Elminster is bloodied, all his defenses become 30, and
Change Shape (polymorph) F At-Will
his standard action attack powers deal 2d10 extra damage and
Effect: Elminster alters his physical form and clothing to appear
5 extra ongoing damage.
as a Medium or Small humanoid until he uses change shape
Sage’s Alacrity
again or until he drops to 0 hit points. To assume a specific
Elminster makes two initiative checks, and he takes a full turn
individual’s form, Elminster must have seen that individual.
on each initiative result. He receives one immediate action
Other creatures can make a DC 40 Insight check to discern
between the end of one of his turns and the start of another.
that the form is a disguise.
Sage’s Countermagic
Triggered Actions
At the end of each of his turns, Elminster ends any dazing,
Elemental Intuitive F At-Will
immobilizing, restraining, slowing, or stunning effect on him.
Trigger: An enemy takes ongoing damage of a type to which it
Standard Actions is resistant.
m Thunderstrike Longsword (thunder, weapon) F At-Will
Effect (Immediate Reaction; Immediate Interrupt while bloodied):
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +24 vs. AC
Close burst 10 (triggering enemy in burst); Elminster changes
Hit: 4d8 + 5 damage, and ongoing 15 thunder damage (save
the damage type to another to which the enemy is not resis-
ends), and Elminster pushes the target up to 4 squares and
tant and imposes a –5 penalty to the saving throw against
knocks it prone.
that damage.
Miss: Elminster pushes the target up to 2 squares.
Skills Arcana +21, History +21, Nature +19
r Arcane Fire (fire, force) F At-Will
Str 13 (+10) Dex 18 (+13) Wis 20 (+14)
Attack: Ranged 10 (one creature); +22 vs. Fortitude
Con 22 (+15) Int 25 (+16) Cha 17 (+12)
Hit: 3d10 + 7 force damage, and ongoing 15 fire damage
Alignment unaligned Languages all
(save ends).
Equipment robes, longsword, pipe
Effect: The target is slowed until the end of Elminster’s next
turn. If the target is already slowed and taking ongoing
damage, it is instead immobilized (save ends).
The character knows Arcana or Endurance allows the
grounding in the nexus.
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Geomagical Configuration
The area within, but not including, the runed squares
(see “Features of the Area”) grants Elminster blind-
sight across the whole map. Within it, he reduces any
push, pull, or slide effect against him by 1 square and
can attempt a saving throw against being knocked
prone, remaining standing if he saves. He also main-
tains mystic’s clarity while bloodied while within
the area. No one can teleport into the geomagical
configuration.
Arcana or Endurance (Minor Action; DC 22):
The character taps into the ­geomagical configura-
tion until the start of his or her next turn, gaining
the reduction of forced movement and the saving
throw against being knocked prone, as well as the
ability to ignore the saving throw penalty of mystic’s
alacrity. A character who already has a capability,
such as the dwarf ’s Stand Your Ground, gains 1
extra square of forced-movement reduction and
+4 to saving throws against being knocked prone.
The character can make a similar check to trigger
second wind as a minor action. Once a character
does this, further checks to tap the configuration
are impossible for the rest of the encounter.
Tactics
Elminster fights like a mage unafraid of his attackers.
He prefers to stay in the geomagical configuration.
When he becomes surrounded, however, he uses rage-
fire nova or teleport to escape. He moves to put a cliff
between him and the characters. After he draws the
characters to him, he returns to occupy the geomagi-
cal configuration.
Conclusion
Characters who subdue rather than kill Elminster
can attempt to cure the Old Sage of his madness.
Such a task requires a Remove Affliction ritual
against a 19th-level effect. Elminster then has the
Simbul’s hunger for magic, which is most easily sated
with magic items. Curing him of this affliction is an
adventure in and of itself. Pulling off such a feat is
accomplishing something Elminster couldn’t do for
the Simbul.
Campaign Workshop: Hero Battle
Expanding the Encounter
Clearing Shadowdale of the effects of Elminster’s
doings requires the characters to hunt down the
anomalous effects and unusual creatures attracted
to the area. A whole adventure could revolve around
this incident. It might involve the sharns and other
plaguechanged creatures, as well as angry fey.
Campaign Arc: If the characters allow Elminster
to escape this encounter, he eventually leaves Shad-
owdale, heading east or south. He ends up in Halruaa
or Deep Imaskar, leaving ruin in his wake. This arc
is sure to involve the sharns, the Order of Blue Fire,
and eventually the Masters of Absolute Accord. For
more information on these subjects, see Forgotten
Realms® Campaign Guide.
About the Author
Chris Sims has played roleplaying games for 30 years, and
he has helped produce games for nearly 10. Before he laired
in the Seattle exurbs, he was an editor/designer at Wizards
of the Coast. There, he worked Duel Masters, Dungeons &
Dragons, and Magic: The Gathering. Now he blogs about
the D&D game for critical-hits.com and is up to no good as a
game-industry freelancer.
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41
 Campaign Workshop: Hero Battle

Features of the Area

Cliffs: Along the west and southeast, these escarp-
ments (Athletics DC 16 to climb) are 25 feet high.
The ridges to the east are
only 15 feet high.
Dragon Remains:
Each square of this
mass of blasted bones is
­difficult terrain.
Flattened Trees:
These blasted trunks and
branches, hardened by
arcane energy, are dif-
ficult terrain. A creature
knocked prone on them
takes 1d6 damage.
Rocks: Rocky areas
marked with triangles
are difficult terrain.
Boulders without
­triangles are 5-foot low
obstacles (Athletics DC
12 to climb). A creature
knocked prone on them
takes 1d6 damage.
Runed Squares:
These runes and the
skull-like rock nodules
around them are harm-
less to intruders (Arcana
DC 31 to discern).
Trees: ­Forested
squares are difficult
terrain and lightly
obscured.

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the
Slaver’s
Stone
an adventure for 5th level characters
By Robert J. Schwalb
illustration by William O’Connor F cartography by Mike Schley

TM & © 2010 Wizards of the Coast LLC All rights reserved.

“The Slaver’s Stone” is an ­adventure for five 5th-

level ­characters. What appears to be a straight-
forward ­mission to rescue abducted folk from the
settlement of Cled gets derailed by a betrayal.

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4

Background
A few days ago, a wereboar slaver named Magrak
Ironjaw attacked the remote village of Cled to capture
prisoners he intended to sell as slaves. Magrak, his
own troops, plus those of the Proud Boys bandits, led
the prisoners across the King’s Wall and into the scar,
bound for the Slaver’s Stone not far from the valley
mouth. There, he hopes to offload the chattel to an
orc chieftain who is known to be a good customer for
slavers.
Hot on the wereboar’s heels, however, is Cluff
Maclire, chief and warleader at Cled. He nearly
caught the slaver, but lost Magrak’s trail at the King’s
Wall. Cluff then traveled to Restwell Keep, where
he hopes to round up support from Lord Drysdale to
rescue his people.
Adventure Synopsis
The adventure begins at Restwell Keep. There, the
characters run across Cluff, who asks them for help
after being rebuffed by the bailiff, who wants no
trouble with the notorious slaver. Cluff, with his own
warriors, the characters, and a guide named Zestren,
heads into the Chaos Scar to pick up the bandits’ trail.
The expedition winds up at the Crossroads where
the Proud Boys, who parted ways with the wereboar,
are camped. From them, the characters learn where
Magrak was headed.
The adventurers can then move to intercept the
slaver band. They nearly catch up with them at the
Stone Forest, a blighted area of petrified trees, but are
delayed by several harpies. Magrak, it appears, offered
the harpies a sacrifice—a young woman—to gain safe
passage through their territory. If the characters
the Slaver’s Stone
rescue her, they can learn important information The Consequences of Time
about how to defeat the wereboar before he gets to the
Cautious adventurers might take one or more
Slaver’s Stone. That night, however, Zestren makes off
extended rests during the adventure. This is bad news
with the captive and hauls her to the oracle at Cloven
for the poor prisoners, because the villains aren’t
Skull. Cluff, dismayed, must choose to either follow
going to put their plans on hold for 6 hours. Luckily,
the traitor or to push on to rescue the greater number
extended resting shouldn’t be necessary thanks to the
of his folk.
Companions (see below). Still, the adventurers might
take their time, and if they do, they face specific
consequences.
Planting the Seeds First Extended Rest: Cluff and the minions
abandon the party unless the characters can persuade
If your group is not quite ready to handle this adven-
them otherwise. You should run this as a complexity
ture, consider planting the following seeds so that
1 skill challenge involving DC 17 Bluff, Diplomacy,
when the characters hit 5th level, they’ll have extra
or Intimidate checks. Success means Cluff sticks
incentive to hunt down Magrak.
around. Failure means he doesn’t, resorting to combat
Maclire Clansperson: A character might have
if he must.
been born in Cled. Cluff is assumed to be human, but
Second Extended Rest: The captive at the Stone
you can swap out his race to match a character in the
party. Ties to the clan should be enough to draw the Forest is eaten. Add 1 orc chieftain (Monster Manual,
character into the plot. page 204) and 8 orc warriors (Monster Manual, page
Magrak Encounter: The characters might meet 203) to Tactical Encounter 3: Chain Gang.
Third Extended Rest: Magrak sells all the pris-
Magrak in a tavern where he treats them poorly.
oners at the Slaver’s Stone and is gone by the time
Or they might encounter his handiwork when they
the adventurers reach the place. The characters have
discover a sacked village or a burned homestead.
failed. They might rescue the prisoners from the orc
Because Magrak is likely more powerful than the
chieftain, though how this might play out is up to you.
adventurers, efforts to confront him should be dif-
ficult and include side treks to lure the adventurers
onto different paths until they are ready for this
Treasure
“The Slaver’s Stone” awards six treasure parcels from
adventure.
party level 5. Items should come from the players’
Zestren: Drop Zestren’s level to one lower than
wish lists. If the characters near 6th level by the last
the characters’ and have him accompany them as
encounter, add the remaining parcels for their level to
a companion character for a few encounters. This
make sure they are properly equipped. In that case,
establishes a rapport between the party and the
add the extra parcels to “Chain Gang” and “Eyes in
traitor.
the Darkness.”
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44

Parcel Contents Location
10 110 gp Bounty on point during the journey and bring the captive to the
Magrak’s Head
4 Level 6 item “Local Color”
5 2 potions of healing, “Local Color”
350 gp
8 300 gp, 400 sp “Dung and
Feathers”
7 298 gp, 396 sp, 240 cp “Chain Gang”
9 Potion of lifeshield “Guardians of spikes. He carries a bastard sword in a sheath hanging
(AV 188), 80 gp the Skull”
1 Level 9 magic item “Eyes in the Dark”
Zestren
Zestren joins Cluff Maclire’s expedition at Restwell
Keep. He claims to know the land around the Scar
well. Zestren has an ulterior motive in joining the
group, however—he intends on betraying them.
The eladrin is desperate to learn the fate of Riddle,
his lover who was lost during another adventure
long ago. Riddle was swallowed up in a dark portal
beneath a ruined keep somewhere near Winterhaven.
Zestren has spent his time trying to recover his lover
with little luck. His efforts eventually put him on the
path to the Lake Oracle who lived just outside the
Scar in a cave known as the Cloven Skull. Zestren
convinced himself the oracle was the only path to
Riddle and thus sought her out.
When he reached the site, he was barred passage
to her by a pair of wicked ghouls who demanded a
living sacrifice before they would allow him passage.
Zestren withdrew and stewed on their demand the
long weeks since. The more he thought on it, the more
convinced he became that it was the only way. When
he heard of Cluff ’s predicament, he was certain it
would give him the means to acquire a suitable sacri-
fice while still doing some good.
Zestren plans to abduct a rescued prisoner at some
ghouls as a sacrifice. Zestren is not completely com-
mitted to the plan and has not yet worked out how it
will happen, so he is not beyond saving. If the oppor-
tunity presents itself, however, Zestren will take it and
complete his slide into evil.
Minor Quest: Stop
Zestren’s Treachery
Unless stopped, Zestren steals a captive and makes
off for the Cloven Skull to learn what secrets he can
from the oracle. The adventurers can foil this plot by
uncovering his true motives or stopping him from
escaping with a prisoner.
Quest XP: 200 for the group.
Companions
Two companion characters, Cluff and Zestren, plus
ten minions join the characters’ adventuring group.
Divide the minions between the players but consider
controlling the two companion characters yourself. If
you have too much to handle already, you can assign
these characters to the players, but be sure to keep
Zestren’s motives secret. A handout at the end of this
adventure contains all the statistics for these charac-
ters. If Zestren becomes an enemy, use his statistics as
given on page 11.
The companions and minions add a new dimen-
sion to a traditional adventure, but if they prove too
much to handle, you can adjust the adventure to run
it without them. In that case, Cluff comes to Restwell
the Slaver’s Stone
Keep alone, hires the adventurers, and sends them
on their way. Zestren appears at the Slaver’s Stone to
steal a prisoner to give to the guardians.
Cluff Maclire
Cluff Maclire is a middle-aged, lanky, pale human war-
rior with stringy brown hair going to gray. He wears
a tartan kilt and a leather jack studded with metal
down the middle of his back. He is a plain-spoken man
with little patience for nonsense and no tolerance for
cowardice. He has vowed to kill Magrak Ironjaw and
save his people even if it costs his own life.
Zestren
Zestren is a graceful eladrin warrior dressed in
traveler’s clothing and chainmail covered by a long,
blue-gray cloak. He carries a longsword in a scab-
bard hanging from his leather belt. He says little and
appears to disdain humans.
Something about Zestren
The characters have several opportunities to talk with
Zestren before his betrayal. Learning more about
him and winning his friendship can reveal what he
intends. This skill challenge takes place over several
hours and can be run during short rests or through
roleplaying while the party travels.
Level: 4 (XP 175)
Complexity: 1 (requires 4 successes before 3
failures)
Primary Skills: Arcana, Bluff, Diplomacy, Insight
Arcana (DC 17; standard action; 1 success, maxi-
mum 1 success): The character identifies Zestren
as a swordmage and recalls something useful about
swordmage training, which can provide the character
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with a topic to discuss with Zestren (and allow for
further bonding). Swordmages gain a +5 bonus to this
check.
Bluff (DC 12; 1 hour; 1 success, maximum 2 suc-
cesses): A character uses false pretenses to learn more
about Zestren. The first success reveals that he was an
adventurer whose party met a terrible end beneath
a ruined keep. A second success softens him up and
he reveals a bit about Riddle, his lost love, though he
keeps secret his efforts to recover her. A failed Bluff
check results in two failures, closes off the Bluff skill
for the duration of the challenge, and increases all
other DCs by 2.
Diplomacy (DC 12; 1 hour; 1 success, maximum 4
successes): A character tries to befriend Zestren. The
first two successful checks reveal the same informa-
tion as described under Bluff. The third check reveals
a general dislike for humans over the fact that a
human was responsible for Riddle’s apparent demise.
A third or fourth success by the same character estab-
lishes a strong connection so that Zestren does not
attack that character unless he is first attacked.
Insight (DC 7; 1 hour; 1 success, maximum 2 suc-
cesses): The character senses that Zestren is uneasy,
and the uneasiness grows as the party travels into the
Chaos Scar. A successful check by 5 or more grants an
extra success and also identifies that Zestren is griev-
ing. A character gains a bonus to Diplomacy checks
made during this challenge equal to the number of
successes earned from Insight checks.
Secondary Skill: Arcana
Arcana (DC 17; standard action; +2 bonus to Diplo-
macy checks): A character mentions something about
magic that impresses Zestren. A successful check
grants the character a +2 bonus to Diplomacy checks
for the duration of the challenge.
Success: The character or characters gain
Zestren’s trust and he divulges his whole sorry tale,
including his terrible plan. He accepts any solution
the characters put forward—killing the ghouls, offer-
ing a villain as a sacrifice, or something else.
Failure: Zestren goes through with the plan. Also,
add 1 cackling harpy to Tactical Encounter 2: Stone
Forest.
Getting Started
The adventure begins in Restwell Keep (see “The
Keep on the Chaos Scar” in Dungeon 176). The adven-
turers can be at the Keep for a variety of reasons, such
as picking up supplies, gathering information about
another lead, or simply taking some well-deserved
downtime between expeditions. Restwell Keep is an
excellent base of operations, and likely the characters
are not strangers to the place.
Once the adventurers conduct all their business,
introduce them to Cluff Maclire. Cluff is at the follow-
ing locations at the indicated times.
1. Main Gate (late morning): Cluff and his war-
riors enter the community to speak with the bailiff.
2a. Bailiff’s Tower (late morning): The bai-
liff, who wants nothing to do with Magrak Ironjaw,
informs Cluff that he intends to send out a force to
deal with the slaver and then never does.
9. Fountain Square (midday): Cluff makes a
scene by haranguing locals about Magrak Ironjaw
and what he did to Cluff ’s folk—namely how the brute
stole their women and burned down their huts. After
a few minutes of this, Kendon Longstrider and a
handful of guards come in and break up the assembly
to scattered applause. Cluff storms away to drink off
his rage at the Stumbling Giant.
the Slaver’s Stone
11. The Stumbling Giant (afternoon until
morning): Cluff and company knock back grog at
the Giant. As the hours wear on, their sobriety dimin-
ishes until the entire band passes out sometime after
midnight.
Talking with Cluff
The characters should run across Cluff in the Keep.
Make it clear that he’s an unhappy man on a mission.
Characters who approach him should learn the fol-
lowing bits of information.
F Cluff Maclire is the chief of Clan Maclire, a
proud warrior tribe with a settlement several
leagues to the north “as the crow flies.”
F A few days back while Cluff and the warriors
were orc-hunting, a coward named Magrak
Ironjaw raided the settlement, “burning all our
homes and stealing the women who chose to
stay behind.” He knows it was Magrak because
“the women gave as good as they got and the
coward left his dead and dying behind for our
questioning.”
F Cluff is sure he can find the slaver at the
Crossroads. He intends to head there first thing
in the morning and “give that brigand the killing
he’s earned.”
Any interest expressed by the characters about
Cluff ’s predicament results in the chieftain pushing
hard to recruit the adventurers to help him. At first,
he runs with the honor bit—“An honorable warrior
could see the righteousness of our cause.” If that fails,
he resorts to guilt—“You wouldn’t doom innocents to
an unspeakable fate, would you?” Finally, he settles
for insults—“Well, I can see you lack the stones to go
with real warriors. When we get back, I’ll teach you
the basics of how to handle a spear.” If none of those
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efforts works, Cluff and Zestren leave with their small
group of warriors but without the characters.
Three days later, one of those warriors returns to
describe how the expedition ended in ruin. Led by
their guide Zestren, a few of the best hunters sneaked
into the slavers’ camp at night and freed just one
person, a young woman. Cluff hoped that she could
provide information that would help the warriors
defeat the slavers and release all the captives. Before
the warriors could strike in force, harpies ambushed
them at the Stone Forest. During that fight, Zestren
and the rescued woman ran off, leaving everyone else
to their fate.
As word of this spreads, Lord Drysdale raises the
bounty for Magrak Ironjaw’s head to 110 gp and also
offers 50 gp for Zestren’s head.
Major Quest: Rescue
Maclire’s Abducted Kin
The characters must track down Magrak Ironjaw
and free the captives before he sells them to the orc
chieftain.
Quest XP: 200 per per character.
Preliminary Investigation
Before heading off to confront the wereboar at the
Crossroads, the characters might be keen to ask
around a bit to learn what they can.
Cluff Maclire
A loudmouth and braggart, he talks big but no one
around here has ever heard of him before (DC 7
Streetwise). The Maclire clansmen are fringe-dwell-
ers, having little to do with civilized folks. Funny how
they come crying for help when they have to pay for
their independence (DC 12 Streetwise).
Crossroads
Never heard of it (DC 7 Streetwise). Oh, that’s a nasty
place all right. I hear them humanoids in the Scar
string up those who offend them from the Gibbet Tree
(DC 12 Streetwise). It’s a bad place to linger, sure, but
it’s also about the closest one comes to civilization in
that terrible place. Lots of bad folk meet there (DC 17
Streetwise).
Magrak Ironjaw
Magrak Ironjaw is a warrior, slaver, and bandit.
Because of his depredations, Lord Drysdale has
offered a 110 gp bounty for Ironjaw’s head. Few
people have tried to hunt him down, and those who
have never return (DC 7 Streetwise). Magrak is a
wereboar, a breed of lycanthrope that can trans-
form into a horrid dire boar (DC 12 Streetwise). He
runs with a mixed band of orcs, half-orcs, and other
scum. Because he provides a needed ­commodity
(slaves), he comes and goes as he pleases in the
Chaos Scar (DC 17).
Zestren
Zestren is new to the keep, having been around only
for a few days. He keeps to himself and says little
to anyone (DC 12 Streetwise). He perks up when
anyone mentions Magrak Ironjaw (DC 17 Streetwise).
Some say he’s the only survivor of an adventuring
group that met their match in a dungeon near Winter-
haven (DC 22 Streetwise).
the Slaver’s Stone
On the Way
Reaching the Crossroads involves following the old
trail toward the Chaos Scar. The characters might
encounter a few locals along the way. Consider inject-
ing one or two of the following encounters during the
trek to the Crossroads.
Escaped Prisoner
One of Magrak’s prisoners, a handsome young
woman from Cled, escaped the wereboar. Unfortu-
nately, Magrak dispatched his warriors to chase her
down. Once the characters defeat the pursuers, then
find the woman, Allysen can tell the adventurers that
Magrak is headed for some place called the Slaver’s
Stone, though she doesn’t know where that is. Cluff, if
with the party, sends two warriors to escort her back
to their lands.
Level 4 Encounter (XP 900)
F 6 orc raiders (level 3 skirmisher, Monster Manual
page 203)
Howling Pack
A gnoll band spills across the countryside to attack
the adventurers. They are undeterred by the char-
acters’ greater numbers. The gnolls’ erratic behavior
comes from the meal they made on strange mush-
rooms found in a nearby glade.
Level 5 Encounter (XP 1,200)
F 2 gnoll claw fighters (level 6 skirmisher, Monster
Manual page 132)
F 1 gnoll huntmaster (level 5 artillery, Monster
Manual page 132)
F 4 hyenas (level 2 skirmisher, Monster Manual
page 166)
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Roaming Dead
A reckless necromancer was killed when he tried to
raise an undead army. The results of his foolish ritual
now roam the Chaos Scar.
Level 4 Encounter (XP 900)
F 2 wights (level 5 skirmisher, Monster Manual page
262)
F 20 decrepit skeletons (level 1 minion, Monster
Manual page 234)
1. Crossroads
The Crossroads are beyond the King’s Wall, about
halfway to the Chaos Scar, at the juncture of the
main trail and a second, smaller trail that leads to the
north. Veterans of the Chaos Scar might have been
here before (see “The Crossroads” in Dungeon 176 for
an overview of the site) and might have left a mark
here—such as killing all the locals and burning the
place to the ground. If your players have been here
before, adjust the following text as needed.
When the characters approach the Crossroads,
read:
The muddy path leads to a road junction where you see
a wooden fort and a couple of buildings. A large, metal
construction stands to one side, and from it hang iron cages.
Ravens clot the cages, gorging themselves on the contents.
The Proud Boys gang camps near the trading post.
They are cruel brigands who sometimes work with
Magrak when he needs more muscle than his own
team can provide. The bandits accompanied Magrak
on his last expedition but split off from him to spend
their pay at the trading post.
The characters can beat the information they need
from the brigands and, in fact, this might be the best
approach. In that case, go to Tactical Encounter 1:
Local Color.
the Slaver’s Stone
Other Methods
The players might concoct some other way to track
down Magrak rather than confronting the Proud Boys
at the Crossroads. Using a ritual, scouring the lands
around the Chaos Scar, or implementing some other
method are all fine. You can still run “Local Color” as
written; just change the environment. The Proud Boys
might ambush the characters on the way to the Stone
Forest or on the way back to Restwell Keep.
Alternatively, cautious adventurers might try talk-
ing (or, they might beat the needed information from
a captive after defeating the bandits). In that case, run
the “Interrogating the Brigands” skill challenge. If
parley occurs first, the bandit captain, a wily half-elf
named Carrus, does the talking. Carrus is unpleasant,
has a foul mouth, and a leering eye. Otherwise, the
same information can come from any of the bandits.
Characters gain a +2 bonus to Intimidate checks if
they defeat the bandits first.
Interrogating the Brigands
Skill Challenge
Level: 5 (200 XP)
Complexity: 1 (4 successes before 3 failures)
Primary Skills: Bluff, History, Insight, Intimidate,
special
Bluff (DC 17; 1 minute; 1 success, maximum 2
successes): A character uses deception to winkle out
the truth. The first success reveals the bandits are
called the Proud Boys and that they “ain’t afraid o’ no
’venturers.” A second success gets them to admit they
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know Magrak Ironjaw, “ jes saw ’im the day a’fore.” A
successful check by 5 or more results in an extra suc-
cess. A failed check nets a failure and closes off Bluff.
History (DC 17; 1 minute; 1 success, maximum 1
success): A character recalls some exploit attributed to
the Proud Boys. A successful check reveals the Boys
are a gang who sometimes join forces with more pow-
erful groups. Success by 5 or more lets the character
remember the Boys once double-crossed an ogre
named Blath and it’s said he still has an axe to grind
against them. This information grants the character a
+2 bonus to Bluff and Intimidate checks for the dura-
tion of the challenge.
Insight (DC 12; 1 minute; 1 success, maximum 1
success): The character reads the bandits. A successful
check reveals they are intimidated by numbers and
might respond to violence.
Intimidate (DC 12; 1 minute; 1 success, maximum
2 successes): The character uses threats to start them
talking with the same results as described under
Bluff.
Special: A character that kills a Proud Boy bandit
gets their attention and earns the heroes 1 success.
Killing a second bandit earns 1 failure and ends
the skill challenge in failure if it happens before the
combat.
Success: The captain (or prisoner) reveals that
they had hooked up with Magrak and helped raid a
settlement beyond the wall. Magrak paid them and
left them here. They think Magrak is headed to the
Slaver’s Stone, “ just beyond the Stone Forest.” They
can provide directions. After the heroes depart,
the bandits track them and attack the first time the
heroes camp for an extended rest.
Failure: If the failure comes before combat, the
bandits attack. If it comes after, the adventurers
learn the same information as above, but the bandits
follow them and attack while the heroes are engaged
against the harpies in Tactical Encounter 2: Dung and
Feathers.
2. Stone Forest
The Stone Forest is not an actual forest but rather a
collection of monoliths set here by people unknown
for purposes unknown. Some claim they are teeth
liberated from a primordial’s mouth by a deft swing
of Moradin’s hammer. Curious origins aside, the
Stone Forest is a popular roosting place for a band of
harpies, who make it their business to torment folk
coming and going from the Scar. Most locals toler-
ate their presence and bullying demands. Magrak is
just such a local, and he offered one of his captives to
silence the shrieking flock.
The Stone Forest stands between the Slaver’s Stone
and the Crossroads. The group can circumvent it
easily, but trekking off the trail invites contact with
other things haunting these parts (see “On the Way,”
above, for possibilities). In any event, the heroes are
bound to hear the shrieking cries and the shouted
curses from their captive.
Adventurers passing through learn the harpies’
demand. Groups can pass freely if they offer up one
of their members (a minion will do), a pile of gold (at
least 5 gp per traveler), or some other valuable trinket.
The harpies readily betray Magrak, telling the adven-
turers, if they ask, that he came this way. The harpies
attack anyone who refuses to pay for their passage.
Under no circumstances will they release their pris-
oner voluntarily.
Go to Tactical Encounter 2: Dung and
Feathers.
the Slaver’s Stone
Betrayal
If the adventurers haven’t yet uncovered Zestren’s
sinister motives by the time the combat starts, Zestren
uses the chaos in the battle to snatch Lysa and make
off with her. Zestren attacks the woman, knocking her
unconscious. He then races off to the north to hand
her over to the ghouls.
If the characters stop Zestren and take him alive,
they can get his story. Use the “Something about
Zestren” skill challenge, substituting Intimidate for
Diplomacy and fear for friendship. On the other
hand, if Zestren escapes with Lysa, the characters
must decide whether to give chase or to confront
Magrak. Cluff, assuming he’s still alive, argues they
should press on (one life is not worth the dozen he
hopes to save). He does not, however, stop the charac-
ters from going to rescue Lysa, saying he hopes to “see
them once they settle that business.”
<< begin sidebar >>
Major Quest:
Help Zestren
Zestren is desperate to learn what befell Riddle and
how to bring her back. He begs the characters to
help him restore Riddle or at least learn what hap-
pened to her.
XP Reward: 350 per character.
<< end sidebar >>
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Pursuing Zestren
The adventurers might chase Zestren straightaway,
in which case they have a chance to stop him before
he reaches the Cloven Skull, or they might wait until
the Magrak matter is concluded, thus consigning poor
Lysa to certain death. The following skill challenge
applies in either situation.
Level: 5 (200 XP)
Complexity: 1 (requires 4 successes before 3
failures)
Primary Skills: Athletics, Endurance, Perception
Athletics (DC 12, group check; variable time; 1 suc-
cess, maximum 1 success): An Athletics group check
must be attempted, and it can be attempted only once.
The characters run to catch up with the eladrin if
chasing him or must overcome some natural obstacle
while tracking him. This is a group skill check with a
success earned if half or more of the party succeeds
on their individual checks. Failure for the group earns
both 1 failure and 1 success.
Endurance (DC 17, group check; variable time; 1
success, maximum 1 success): An Endurance group
check must be attempted, and it can be attempted
only once. The terrain is challenging, and the char-
acters must struggle against its manifold hardships.
This is a group skill check with a success earned if
half or more of the party succeeds on their individual
checks. Failure for the group earns both 1 failure and
1 success.
Perception (DC 12, or 17 if tracking; variable time;
1 success, 2 successes maximum): A character tries to
keep Zestren in sight or follow his tracks. Up to four
characters can aid on this check.
Success: If chasing, the characters catch up with
Zestren, who surrenders and reveals the whole story.
He begs the characters to help him pass by the guard-
ians so he can speak with the oracle.
Failure: The characters find the Cloven Skull but
get there too late to save Lysa. Proceed with “Seer in
the Water,” below.
Zestren Level 4 Soldier
Medium fey humanoid, eladrin XP 175
HP 52; Bloodied 26 Initiative +5
AC 21, Fortitude 17, Reflex 17, Will 18 Perception +1
Speed 6 Low-light vision
Saving Throws +5 against charm effects
Standard Actions
m Longsword (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +9 vs. AC
Hit: 1d8 + 5 damage, and the target is marked until the end of
Zestren’s next turn.
M Greenflame Blade (fire, weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +9 vs. AC
Hit: 1d8 + 6 fire damage. Each enemy adjacent to the target
takes 3 fire damage.
C Corrosive Ruin (acid, implement) F Recharge 5 6
Attack: Close blast 3 (creatures in blast); +7 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d8 + 6 acid damage.
Move Actions
Fey Step (teleportation) F Encounter
Zestren teleports 5 squares.
Triggered Actions
Blinking Blade (fire, teleportation) F At-Will
Trigger: An adjacent enemy Zestren has marked shifts or
makes an attack that does not include him as a target.
Effect (Immediate Interrupt): The triggering enemy takes 5 fire
damage, and then Zestren teleports 3 squares.
Skills Arcana +11, Athletics +10, History +11
Str 16 (+5) Dex 12 (+3) Wis 8 (+1)
Con 12 (+3) Int 18 (+6) Cha 12 (+3)
Alignment Evil Languages Common, Elven
Equipment traveler’s clothes, chainmail, longsword
the Slaver’s Stone
Lysa, the Prisoner
Assuming Lysa survives, she proves helpful. She is a
strong-willed woman with brown hair and blue eyes,
and she wears a torn shirt and skirt. She has a fiery
disposition and a no-nonsense way about her. She
knows the following:
F Magrak is headed to the Slaver’s Stone, where
he’s to meet an orc chieftain named Po to whom
he hopes to offload his captives.
F The numbers and composition of Magrak’s
forces.
F That the Proud Boys were involved in the attack
on Cled.
Lysa is not about to go home. She joins Cluff ’s forces,
picking up spare armor and weapons from her
cohorts.
3. Slaver’s Stone
The Slaver’s Stone takes its name for the business
conducted on the high, flat stone. Magrak named
it himself. Magrak arrives at the Stone early and
must wait several hours for the orc chieftain, Po, to
arrive. If the characters arrive in time, which they
do if they’ve been smart with their extended rests
(see “The Consequences of Time” on page 5), they
can catch the wereboar without the orcs to give him
trouble. In this situation, allow the characters to see
the camp and where the creatures are positioned. The
characters can use Stealth against the sentries’ pas-
sive Perception to move into position and, most likely,
take the entire camp by surprise.
Go to Tactical Encounter 3: Chain Gang.
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4. The Lake Oracle
Although tangential to the main plot, the characters
might have cause to visit the seer of the Cloven Skull
depending on how the story with Zestren plays out.
The Lake Oracle is an insane steel dragon, driven
mad through exposure to Far Realm bleed-through
long ago. The dragon fled to the Chaos Scar to escape
the voices and visions she experienced and now lairs
in a dark cavern. She subsists on the blindfish swim-
ming in the underground lake where she makes her
home and has little to no contact with the other crea-
tures found in her lair.
Zestren knows the location of the Cloven Skull
and can lead the characters there. Otherwise, the
adventurers might come across the site through
happenstance, to seek out answers to their own que-
ries, or to deal with the evil believed to linger here.
Although the oracle might be dealt with without
combat, the self-styled guardians are dangerous.
The Cloven Skull
The Cloven Skull is a queer rock formation in the side
of the mountains forming the Chaos Scar and, as one
might expect, it appears to be an enormous human
skull chiseled from the stone and with a dark gap in
the center.
Go to Tactical Encounter 4: Guardians of the
Skull.
the Slaver’s Stone
Seer in the Water Bluff (DC 21; 1 minute; 1 success, maximum 4
successes): The character lies about the reason for
Beyond the ghouls at the Cloven Skull, the charac-
wanting the knowledge. For every 5 points by which
ters find a cramped, winding passage burrowing
the check succeeds, the character earns an extra
deep into the mountain. The adventure assumes the
­success. Each failed check, in addition to counting as
tunnel leads more or less straight to the oracle, but
a failure, increases the DC for all skill checks related
feel free to add an extra encounter or two if you like.
to the challenge by 2.
When the adventurers reach the end, they are on the
Diplomacy (DC 14; 5 minutes; 1 success, maximum
pebbled shore overlooking a broad, wide lake teeming
4 successes): The character makes an impassioned
with pale crustaceans and darting blindfish. Some
plea to the dragon, explaining the information’s
distance away is the small, rocky island where the
importance. For every 5 points by which the check
oracle makes her home.
succeeds, the character earns an extra success. This
If combat breaks out, go to Tactical Encounter 5:
skill can be used to gain 4 successes in this challenge.
Eyes in the Dark.
History (DC 19; 5 minutes; 1 success, maximum 1
Heroes approaching the Lake Oracle with more
success): The character recalls some interesting his-
discretion, however, can instead try to persuade the
torical tidbit of interest to the dragon. In addition to
dragon to reveal a secret, foretell an event, or provide
counting as a success, a successful check also removes
some other bit of information the characters need to
1 failure.
learn. If the characters take this approach, run the
Insight (DC 8; 5 minutes; 1 success, maximum 1
“Consulting the Oracle” skill challenge.
success): The character tries to ascertain the dragon’s
Consulting the Oracle desires. A success reveals the dragon is quite mad. A
Skill Challenge successful check, in addition to counting as a success,
grants a +2 bonus to Diplomacy checks related to
Level: 8 (XP 350)
the challenge. Success by 5 or more also reveals the
Complexity: 1 (requires 4 successes before 3
dragon might accept a gift.
failures)
Special: Offering the dragon a gift worth at least
Primary Skills: Arcana, Bluff, Diplomacy, His-
400 gp grants 2 successes, with 1 additional success
tory, Insight, special
for each additional 100 gp of its worth.
Arcana (DC 19; 5 minutes; 1 success, maximum 1
Secondary Skills: Intimidate
success): The character identifies the Far Realm influ-
Intimidate: The dragon does not respond to threats
ences in the dragon. A successful check, in addition
or bullying. Each attempted Intimidate check makes
to counting as a success, grants a +2 bonus to Bluff
the dragon angrier and results in an automatic
checks related to the challenge.
failure.
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Success: The dragon reveals useful information
pertaining to the questions the characters put for-
ward. The quality of this information approximates
to what a character might know with a successful DC
30 knowledge or monster knowledge check. This is
an excellent place to see future quests, foreshadow
upcoming adventures, or reveal a secret about the
campaign. If Zestren is with the party and he is
allowed to ask after Riddle, the dragon reveals Riddle
is dead and that her soul is being held by a necroman-
cer named Kyrznan in the dark city of Gloomwrought
(Manual of the Planes page 57). Riddle cannot be
restored to life until the soul is first recovered.
If the characters succeed on the skill challenge
without accumulating any failures, the dragon
rewards the character with the highest Charisma
score a boon.
Whispers from Beyond Level 9
You hear strange whispers and experience unsettling visions,
yet from the confusing jumble can pick out useful insights.
Legendary Boon 4,200 gp
Property: You gain a +1 item bonus to initiative and Perception
checks.
Power (Daily): Immediate Interrupt. Trigger: An enemy
enters a square adjacent to you. Attack: Melee 1 (trig-
gering enemy); level + 3 vs. Will. Hit: The target grants
combat advantage and takes a –2 penalty to attack rolls
that include you as a target until the end of your next
turn.
Failure: The dragon grows angry and attacks the
heroes.
the Slaver’s Stone
Conclusion About the Author
Robert J. Schwalb is an award-winning game designer who
has contributed design to or developed over one hundred
The adventure ends when the characters rescue the roleplaying game titles for Dungeons & Dragons®, Warham-
prisoners from Magrak or, if the adventurers follow mer Fantasy Roleplay, A Song of Ice and Fire RPG, Star Wars RPG,
up on the oracle, after getting the information they and the d20 system. Some of his more recent work for Wizards
of the Coast is in Player’s Handbook 3, Martial Power 2, and
or Zestren need (or slaying the dragon). If Cluff sur- Draconomicon 2: Metallic Dragons. In addition, he’s a regular
vives, he thanks the heroes for their help and assures contributor to both Dragon and Dungeon magazines. Robert
them they will be treated like kings the next time lives, works, and will probably die in Tennessee.
they come through Cled. If the characters helped
Zestren learn Riddle’s fate (see Tactical Encounter 5:
Eyes in the Dark for more information on her fate),
the eladrin is grieved by the knowledge but is more
resolved than ever to hunt down the necromancer
and free Riddle’s soul. Whether the characters
accompany Zestren and what such a mission might
entail is up to you.
You also have the matter of the orc chieftain.
Po is angry about not getting his slaves and a little
snooping around should garner him the names of
the characters. He might seek revenge by attacking
the adventurers later or mount an attack on Restwell
Keep. If, though, the adventurers failed to rescue the
prisoners, they might try to locate them and wrest
them from the orc. What did he want the slaves for?
Where are they? Do they still live?
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1. Local Color
Encounter Level 5 (1,025 XP)
Setup
1 half-elf bandit captain (C)
1 half-orc hunter (H)
1 human renegade mage (M)
8 Proud Boy bandits (P)
The bandits aided Magrak Ironjaw and now camp
here, finding creative ways to spend their coin. They
owe Magrak no particular loyalty and are open to
discussion since they are not particularly interested
in dying.
The captain, hunter, mage, and four bandits
are at the site. The other four bandits are off doing
something bad in the trees. They come to investigate
sounds of fighting at the start of the third round
entering from the right side of the map.
As noted above, if the characters arrive before the
orcs, allow the characters to see the camp and where
the creatures are positioned. The characters can use
Stealth against the sentries’ passive Perception to
move into position and possibly take the entire camp
by surprise.
When the heroes can see the encampment, read:
In the shadow cast by the wooden fort, you spy an
encampment with a fire burning in the center. A little more
than a half-dozen humanoids loiter, drink, and carouse.
Each one wears a soiled bandage around his or her left
arm—probably a badge of some kind.
If the heroes approach in the open, read:
A slim half-elf looks up from the mob and pins you with a
suspicious glare. “Looks like you chose a bad day to stop by,
right fellas?” Much laughter ensues.
Half-Elf Level 6 Skirmisher (Leader) Draw First Blood
Bandit Captain (C)
Medium natural humanoid XP 250
HP 69; Bloodied 34 Initiative +9
AC 20, Fortitude 18, Reflex 19, Will 18 Perception +8
Speed 6 Low-light vision
Standard Actions
m Longsword (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +11 vs. AC
Hit: 1d8 + 4 damage, and the captain shifts 1 square.
r Dagger (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Ranged 5/10; +11 vs. AC
Hit: 1d4 + 4 damage.
M R Slash and Dash (weapon) F Recharge 4 5 6
Effect: The captain makes a longsword attack, shifts 2 squares,
and then makes a dagger attack.
M Triggering Slash (weapon) F Recharge 5 6
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +11 vs. AC
Hit: 1d8 + 4 damage, and one ally shifts 1 square and makes a
melee basic attack as a free action.
Skills Athletics +11, Diplomacy +11, Insight +8, Stealth +12
Str 16 (+6) Dex 19 (+7) Wis 11 (+3)
Con 13 (+4) Int 10 (+3) Cha 16 (+6)
Alignment Unaligned Languages Common, Elven
Equipment leather armor, longsword, 6 daggers
Tactics
The bandits fight simply, working in teams to flank
while the mage hurls magic missiles and other spells
into the party’s midst.
the Slaver’s Stone
Half-Orc Hunter (H)
Medium natural humanoid
Level 5 Skirmisher
XP 200
HP 62; Bloodied 31 Initiative +7
AC 19, Fortitude 18, Reflex 18, Will 16 Perception +3
Speed 6 (8 while charging) Low-light vision
Traits
The hunter’s melee attacks deal 1d10 extra damage against
any target that has not yet taken damage during the encounter.
Standard Actions
m Battleaxe (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +10 vs. AC
Hit: 1d10 + 5 damage.
r Longbow (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Ranged 20/40 (one creature); +10 vs. AC
Hit: 1d10 + 5 damage.
M Evasive Chop (weapon) F At-Will
Effect: Before and after the attack, the hunter shifts 1 square.
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +10 vs. AC
Hit: 1d10 + 5 damage.
Triggered Actions
Furious Assault F Encounter
Trigger: The hunter deals damage with an attack.
Effect (Free Action): The triggering attack deals 1d10
extra damage.
Skills Endurance +9, Nature +8
Str 16 (+5) Dex 17 (+5) Wis 13 (+3)
Con 14 (+4) Int 10 (+2) Cha 8 (+1)
Alignment Unaligned Languages Common, Giant
Equipment leather armor, battleaxe, longbow, 20 arrows
Botching the Encounter
If the characters wipe out the bandits and learn noth-
ing from them, all is not lost. Millen Silvereye, the
psychic tiefling who runs the Trading Post, is relieved
to be rid of the bandits and tells the characters
everything they need to know in exchange for 50 gp.
Substitute someone else if Millen is dead or gone.
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 the Slaver’s Stone

Human Renegade Mage (M)

Medium natural humanoid
Level 4 Controller
XP 175
8 Proud Boy Bandits (P)
Medium natural humanoid
Level 5 Minion Skirmisher
XP 50 each
Features of the Area
HP 52; Bloodied 26 Initiative +4 HP 1; a missed attack never damages a minion. Initiative +6 Treasure: The captain has a level 6 magic item.
AC 17, Fortitude 13, Reflex 14, Will 15 Perception +5 AC 19, Fortitude 17, Reflex 17, Will 17 Perception +1 The bandits have 2 potions of healing and a sack of 350
Speed 6 Speed 6 gp (payment from Magrak).
Standard Actions Standard Actions
m Quarterstaff (weapon) F At-Will m Club (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +7 vs. AC Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +10 vs. AC
Hit: 1d8 damage. Hit: 5 damage.
r Magic Missile (force, implement) F At-Will R Crossbow (weapon) F Recharges when bandit spends
Attack: Ranged 20 (one creature) minor action to reload
Effect: The target takes 5 force damage. Attack: Ranged 15/30 (one creature); +8 vs. AC
R Brilliant Chains (implement, lightning) F Encounter Hit: 6 damage.
Primary Attack: Ranged 10 (one creature); +7 vs. Reflex Triggered Actions
Hit: 1d8 + 4 lightning damage, and the mage makes a C Fearful Scattering (fear) F Encounter
secondary attack. Trigger: The bandit drops to 0 hit points.
Secondary Attack: Ranged 10 (two creatures within 5 squares Effect (No Action): Close burst 3 (ally minions in burst); the
of the primary target); +8 vs. Reflex target shifts 1 square as a free action.
Hit: 4 lightning damage, and the target is slowed (save Str 17 (+5) Dex 15 (+4) Wis 9 (+1)
ends). Whenever the target ends its turn more than 5 Con 13 (+3) Int 8 (+1) Cha 12 (+3)
squares away from the primary target while it is slowed, it Alignment Evil Languages Common
takes 5 lightning damage and the mage knocks the target
prone.
A Cacophonous Burst (implement, thunder) F Encounter
Attack: Area burst 1 within 10 squares (creatures in burst); +7
vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d6 + 4 thunder damage, the mage pushes the target 1
square, and the target becomes dazed (save ends).
Triggered Actions
Deflecting Shield F Encounter
Trigger: The mage is the target of a melee or ranged attack.
Effect (Immediate Interrupt): The mage gains a +4 bonus to the
defense targeted by the triggering attack until the end of
the mage’s next turn.
Skills Arcana +11
Str 10 (+2) Dex 14 (+4) Wis 17 (+5)
Con 12 (+3) Int 18 (+6) Cha 12 (+3)
Alignment Evil Languages Common
Equipment robes, quarterstaff, orb

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2. Dung and Feathers
Encounter Level 6 (1,400 XP)
Setup
7 cackling harpies (H)
The harpies perch atop the monoliths.
When the heroes come upon the Stone Teeth,
read:
Eight monoliths, each twenty feet tall, rise around the trail
leading to the Scar. No stone stands straight; they lean as
if they might fall at any moment. Lichen and dung stain
the rocks, likely from the screeching bird women perched
atop them. One calls out, “A gift and we shall let your band
pass unharmed!” Just then, you hear a pitiful cry sounding
from atop the eighth stone, where you see a terrified young
woman searching for a way down.
Filth Fever Level 5 Disease
Endurance improve DC 17, maintain DC 12, worsen DC 11 or lower
The target ! Initial Effect: !" The target takes a " Final State: The target takes a –2 penalty to AC,
is cured. The target loses a –2 penalty to AC,
healing surge. Fortitude, and Reflex. and cannot regain hit points.
Tactics
The harpies start the fight with f ling filth attacks at
the nearest enemies and then swoop down from
their perches to make swooping slash attacks and then
land on another monolith. They fight until only two
remain, at which point they kill their prisoner and fly
off toward the valley.
Unstable Monolith Single-Use Terrain
The spotted stone does not sit easily in the earth and might fall
with a bit of pressure.
Requirement: You must be adjacent to the monolith.
Check: DC 21 Athletics check to topple the monolith
Success: The monolith falls and makes the following attack.
Target: Each creature in a close blast 3 away from the character
making the check
Attack: +9 vs. Reflex
Hit: 2d8 + 4 damage, the monolith knocks the target prone,
and the target has superior cover and cannot stand. The
target can use the escape action (DC 15) to end the “cannot
stand” condition.
Miss: Half damage, and the target slides to the nearest
unoccupied square adjacent to the blast.
Fortitude, and Reflex. The target loses all healing surges
the Slaver’s Stone
7 Cackling Harpies (H)
Medium fey humanoid
Level 5 Skirmisher
XP 200
HP 62; Bloodied 31 Initiative +8
AC 19, Fortitude 17, Reflex 18, Will 17 Perception +3
Speed 6, fly 8
Immune filth fever
Standard Actions
m Claw F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +10 vs. AC
Hit: 1d6 + 4 damage or 2d6 + 4 damage with combat
advantage.
M Swooping Slash F At-Will
Effect: The harpy flies its speed and makes the following attack
at any one point during its movement.
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +11 vs. AC
Hit: 1d6 + 4 damage, and the harpy slides the target 2 squares.
R Fling Filth (disease) F Recharge 6
Attack: Ranged 5 (one creature); +8 vs. Reflex
Hit: The target is exposed to filth fever (see below).
C Curdling Screech (fear, psychic) F Encounter
Attack: Close blast 3 (creatures in blast); +8 vs. Will
Hit: 1d8 + 4 psychic damage, and the target is dazed
(save ends).
Miss: Half damage.
Triggered Actions
C Hideous Cackle (fear) F At-Will
Trigger: The harpy hits with a melee or ranged attack.
Attack (Free Action): Close burst 2 (enemies in burst)
Effect: The target takes a –2 penalty to attack rolls until the
end of its next turn.
Str 11 (+2) Dex 18 (+6) Wis 12 (+3)
Con 14 (+4) Int 10 (+2) Cha 14 (+4)
Alignment Evil Languages Common
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 the Slaver’s Stone

Features of the Area

Monolith: Each monolith stands 20 feet tall and
counts as blocking terrain. A monolith has AC/Reflex
4, Fortitude 12, and 80 hit points. These stones have
plenty of handholds and can be climbed with a DC
12 Athletics check. Furthermore, a good shove might
knock a stone to the ground.
Chained Prisoner (L): Use Cled warrior statistics
for the prisoner, whose name is Lysa. She attacks any
harpy she can reach on initiative count 10.
Treasure: The harpies keep their wealth stashed
atop one of the stones. It consists of 300 gp and 400 sp.

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3. Chain Gang
Encounter Level 7 (1,628 XP)
Setup
Magrak Ironjaw (M)
1 spiked blademaster (S)
2 orc reavers (R)
6 hobgoblin sentries (H)
6 mercenary archers (A)
Magrak has set up camp around the Slaver’s Stone.
He and his bladeling cohort sit around the campfire.
The orc reavers guard the dozen prisoners. The hob-
goblins hold positions to watch for enemies, while
a few archers hide in the rocks so they can pick off
intruders from cover and the rest take positions atop
the drum. Magrak expects the orc chieftain, but
anyone else gets one warning to “sod off ” before he
orders his force to attack.
When the heroes see the encampment, read:
A twenty-foot tall stone drum with a crude stair winding all
around rises in the center of an encampment, where you see
several humanoids and their prisoners milling about.
Perception
DC 20: You spot a filthy human armed with a longbow
hiding in the rocks.
the Slaver’s Stone
Magrak Ironjaw (M) Level 6 Elite Brute M Murderous Smash (weapon) F Recharge 5 6
Large natural humanoid (shapechanger), wereboar XP 500
Requirement: Magrak must be in humanoid form.
HP 172; Bloodied 86 Initiative +3
Attack: Melee 1 (one bloodied creature); +10 vs. AC
AC 17, Fortitude 23, Reflex 16, Will 17 Perception +4
Hit: 3d6 + 6 damage, and Magrak knocks the target prone.
Speed 6 (8 in boar form)
Immune moontusk fever; Vulnerable silver (the wereboar
Minor Actions
Change Shape (polymorph) F At-Will
loses regeneration until the end of its next turn)
Magrak can alter his physical form to appear as a dire boar or a
Saving Throws +2; Action Points 1
unique humanoid.
Traits
Triggered Actions
Bloodied Resilience
Death Strike F Encounter
While bloodied, Magrak gains a +2 bonus to all defenses.
Trigger: Magrak drops to 0 hit points.
Regeneration (healing)
Effect (No Action): Magrak makes a melee basic attack.
Magrak regains 5 hit points whenever he starts his turn and
Murderous Frenzy F Encounter
has at least 1 hit point.
Trigger: Magrak reduces an enemy to 0 hit points.
Standard Actions
Effect (No Action): Magrak gains 1 action point.
m Maul (weapon) F At-Will
Savage Rebuke F At-Will
Requirement: Magrak must be in humanoid form.
Trigger: Magrak is hit by a melee attack.
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +9 vs. AC
Effect (Immediate Reaction): Magrak makes a melee basic attack.
Hit: 2d6 + 6 damage.
Skills Athletics +13, Endurance +11, Intimidate +8
m Gore F At-Will
Str 20 (+8) Dex 10 (+3) Wis 12 (+4)
Requirement: Magrak must be in boar form.
Con 16 (+6) Int 10 (+3) Cha 11 (+3)
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +9 vs. AC
Alignment Evil Languages Common
Hit: 1d8 + 6 damage, ongoing 5 damage (save ends), and the
target is exposed to moontusk fever (see below). If Magrak is
Equipment hide armor, maul
bloodied, the attack deals ongoing 10 damage (save ends).
Moontusk Fever Level 6 Disease
Endurance improve DC 17, maintain DC 12, worsen DC 11 or lower
The target ! Initial Effect: !" While bloodied, the " Final State: When the target rolls a saving throw while
is cured. The target takes target can roll only bloodied, it rolls two dice and takes the lower of the
a –2 penalty to one saving throw at two results.
saving throws the end of its turn,
while bloodied. even if it is affected
by multiple effects.
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Tactics
Magrak doesn’t place much stock in group tactics and
it shows in the forces under his command. Magrak
prefers to fight in humanoid form, smashing enemies
with maul and murderous smash. He uses change shape
before he charges, so he can gore and expose his oppo-
nents to moontusk fever.
The spiked blademaster is far more guarded in her
approach. She engages the nearest knot of foes, using
her aura and ensnaring spikes to lock down enemies.
The blademaster holds razor storm as a defensive
power to nail enemies crowding around her.
The orcs abandon their prisoners on the first
round by using ferocious charge to close the distance
and then focus attacks on their targets until they can
6 Hobgoblin Sentries (H) Level 4 Minion Soldier
Medium natural humanoid XP 44 each
HP 1; a missed attack never damages a minion. Initiative +6
AC 20, Fortitude 18, Reflex 16, Will 15 Perception +3
Speed 5 Low-light vision
Traits
Phalanx Soldier
A hobgoblin sentry gains a +2 bonus to AC while at least one
other hobgoblin with phalanx soldier is adjacent to it.
Standard Actions
m Spear (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +11 vs. AC
Hit: 4 damage.
Triggered Actions
Hobgoblin Resilience F Encounter
Trigger: The hobgoblin suffers an effect that a save can end.
Effect (Immediate Reaction): The hobgoblin makes a saving
throw against the triggering effect.
Str 18 (+6) Dex 14 (+4) Wis 13 (+3)
Con 15 (+4) Int 10 (+2) Cha 9 (+1)
Alignment Evil Languages Common, Goblin
Equipment chainmail, light shield, spear
use sudden charge. The minions fight simply. The sen-
tries move to clump up into teams of two to benefit
from their phalanx soldier auras while the archers pick
off any ranged enemies they can see.
Spiked Blademaster (S) Level 5 Soldier
Medium natural humanoid, bladeling XP 200
HP 62; Bloodied 31 Initiative +5
AC 21, Fortitude 18, Reflex 15, Will 16 Perception +4
Speed 5
Resist 5 acid
Traits
O Blademaster’s Eye F Aura 1
Any enemy that starts its turn within the aura becomes
marked until the start of its next turn.
Standard Actions
m Greatsword (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +12 vs. AC
Hit: 1d10 + 4 damage.
M Power Strike (weapon) F 2/Encounter
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +12 vs. AC
Hit: 2d10 + 4 damage, and ongoing 3 damage (save ends).
Minor Actions
C Razor Storm F Encounter
Attack: Close burst 1 (creatures in burst); +8 vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d6 + 4 damage.
Triggered Actions
M Ensnaring Spikes F At-Will
Requirement: The blademaster’s razor storm power must be
unexpended.
Trigger: An adjacent enemy the blademaster has marked
would move or shift.
Attack (Free Action): Melee 1 (triggering enemy); +8 vs. Reflex
Hit: 5 damage, and the target is slowed until the end of its turn.
Skills Intimidate +7
Str 19 (+6) Dex 13 (+3) Wis 15 (+4)
Con 14 (+4) Int 9 (+1) Cha 10 (+2)
Alignment Evil Languages Common
Equipment chainmail, greatsword
the Slaver’s Stone
2 Orc Reavers (R)
Medium natural humanoid
Level 5 Skirmisher
XP 200 each
HP 65; Bloodied 32 Initiative +5
AC 19, Fortitude 18, Reflex 15, Will 15 Perception +3
Speed 6 (8 when charging)
Low-light vision
Standard Actions
m Battleaxe (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +10 vs. AC
Hit: 1d10 + 4 damage or 1d10 + 6 damage against a
prone target.
M Ferocious Charge (weapon) F Recharges when bloodied
Effect: The orc charges and makes the following attack in place
of a melee basic attack.
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +11 vs. AC
Hit: 2d10 + 4 damage, and the orc knocks the target prone.
M Warrior’s Surge (healing, weapon) F Encounter
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +10 vs. AC
Hit: 1d10 + 4 damage, and the orc regains 16 hit points.
Triggered Actions
M Sudden Charge (weapon) F Encounter
Trigger: The orc reduces an enemy to 0 hit points.
Effect (Free Action): The orc charges the nearest the enemy.
Str 19 (+6) Dex 13 (+3) Wis 12 (+3)
Con 17 (+5) Int 6 (+0) Cha 8 (+1)
Alignment Chaotic evil Languages Common, Giant
Equipment hide armor, heavy shield, battleaxe
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 the Slaver’s Stone

6 Mercenary Archers (A)

Medium natural humanoid, human
Level 4 Minion Artillery
XP 44
Features of
HP 1; a missed attack never damages a minion. Initiative +5 the Area
AC 16, Fortitude 16, Reflex 16, Will 15 Perception +8 Rocks: The large rocks jutting from
Speed 6 the ground count as difficult terrain and
Standard Actions grant cover to creatures fully in their
m Short Sword (weapon) F At-Will
spaces. Prone creatures fully in these
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +9 vs. AC
spaces gain superior cover.
Hit: 4 damage.
r Longbow (weapon) F At-Will
Slaver’s Stone: A wide and 20-foot-
Attack: Ranged 20/40 (one creature); +9 vs. AC tall stone platform occupies the camp’s
Hit: 5 damage. center. The stairs winding around the
Triggered Actions platform are difficult terrain. A fall from
Scatter F At-Will the top deals 2d10 damage.
Trigger: An ally the archer can see drops to 0 hit points. Prisoners: The twelve prisoners are
Effect (Free Action): The archer shifts 1 square.
in chains and immobilized. Freeing a
Skills Stealth +10
prisoner requires a DC 17 Thievery or
Str 14 (+4) Dex 16 (+5) Wis 12 (+3)
Con 10 (+2) Int 8 (+1) Cha 9 (+1)
DC 19 Strength check. The chain can
Alignment Unaligned Languages Common also be attacked: AC/Reflex 8, Fortitude
Equipment leather armor, short sword, longbow, 20 arrows 8, 60 hp. The prisoners use Cled warrior
statistics except their melee basic attacks
deal half damage until they are armed.
Treasure: Magrak has a sack filled
with coins that includes 298 gp, 396 sp,
and 240 cp.

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4. Guardians of
the Skull
Encounter Level 5 (1,100 XP)
Setup
2 ghouls (G)
4 centipede scuttlers (S)
Two ghouls along with their pet centipedes estab-
lished themselves here to exact payment from any
who would treat with the oracle, a fee of which the
oracle is unaware and never receives. The undead
prefer living gifts for passage, and anyone who offers
a sacrifice can move through the gap unmolested.
Otherwise, they block anyone from entering, happily
attacking those who try.
When the heroes reach the Cloven Skull, read:
A massive stone skull with a split down the middle juts from
the side of a rocky wall. Humanoid skulls with bits of flesh
still clinging to the bone stand in piles and hang in bundles
from ropes on either side of the fissure.
If the heroes approach, read:
Two filthy humanoids dressed in befouled rags emerge
from the gap, mouths spread wide in horrid smiles of
jagged teeth and long black tongue. They spread their thin
arms in welcome, showing stained hands ending in sharp
talons. One says, “See the oracle? Pay price. One life and
you may pass.”
the Slaver’s Stone
Tactics 4 Centipede Scuttlers (S)
Medium natural beast
Level 4 Skirmisher
XP 175 each
The ghouls hold positions in front of the gap, using
claw attacks or ghoulish bite attacks against immobi-
HP 51; Bloodied 25
AC 18, Fortitude 16, Reflex 18, Will 14
Initiative +8
Perception +2
lized and stunned opponents. The centipedes boil out Speed 8, climb 8 (spider climb) Darkvision
from the darkness at the start of the second round, Standard Actions
climbing up the walls and circling behind the heroes
m Bite (poison) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +9 vs. AC
to bite and feed.
Hit: 1d6 + 2 damage, and ongoing 5 poison damage (save
ends). A target already taking ongoing poison damage is
2 Ghouls (G) Level 5 Soldier
Medium natural humanoid (undead) XP 200 each also weakened (save ends).
M Feed F At-Will
HP 63; Bloodied 31 Initiative +8
AC 21, Fortitude 18, Reflex 20, Will 17 Perception +2 Attack: Melee 1 (one weakened creature); +9 vs. AC
Speed 8, climb 4 Darkvision Hit: 3d6 + 2 damage.
Immune disease, poison; Resist 10 necrotic; Move Actions
Vulnerable 5 radiant Scuttle F At-Will
Standard Actions The centipede shifts 4 squares. When it shifts into an ally’s
m Claws F At-Will space, that movement does not count toward the 4 squares
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +12 vs. AC the centipede can shift.
Hit: 1d6 + 4 damage, and the target is immobilized (save ends). Skills Stealth +11
M Ghoulish Bite F At-Will Str 14 (+4) Dex 18 (+6) Wis 10 (+2)
Attack: Melee 1 (one immobilized, stunned, or unconscious Con 11 (+2) Int 2 (–2) Cha 9 (+1)
creature); +10 vs. AC Alignment Unaligned Languages —
Hit: 3d6 + 4 damage, and the target is stunned (save ends).
Skills Stealth +11
Str 14 (+4) Dex 19 (+6) Wis 11 (+2)
Con 15 (+4) Int 10 (+2) Cha 12 (+3)
Alignment Chaotic evil Languages Common
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 the Slaver’s Stone

Features of the Area

Cloven Skull: The gap in the skull leads into a
dark and winding passage that eventually ends at a
subterranean lake.
Skull Stacks: Humanoid skulls stand in neat
stacks to either side of the gap. The stacks count as
blocking terrain. All squares within 3 squares of each
stack count as necrotic ground. Creatures that spend
healing surges on necrotic ground regain only half
the normal number of hit points.
Treasure: Scattered across the ground before the
fissure are 80 gp and one potion of lifeshield (level 5,
Adventurer’s Vault, page 188).

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5. Eyes in the Dark
Encounter Level 8 (1,850 XP)
Setup
Lake Oracle (O)
12 murk wretches (W)
The Lake Oracle lurks on the island in the lake’s
center. The murk wretches, horrid petitioners driven
mad by the Oracle’s revelations, haunt the water
and emerge to join the fight should the dragon come
under attack.
When the heroes enter this cavern, read:
The tunnel ends at a stony shore against which oily black
water laps. A rocky island rises from the waters some
distance away, where you can just make out a humanoid
figure crouching by the lake.
The heroes can catch the Lake Oracle’s attention by
calling to her. She climbs on a small boat and rows to
the opposite shore.
When the Oracle reaches the heroes, read:
A pale human woman with white, unseeing eyes regards
you through dirty gray strands of hair. She wears nothing,
but is unashamed by her nakedness. She says, “You have
come seeking knowledge. Tell me why I should cast aside
mystery’s veil.”
Lake Oracle (O) Level 6 Solo Controller
Large natural magical beast (blind, dragon,
shapechanger), steel dragon XP 1,250
HP 288; Bloodied 144 Initiative +4
AC 20, Fortitude 19, Reflex 17, Will 20 Perception +11
Speed 8, fly 10 (hover) Blind, blindsight 10
Immune blinded, gaze; Resist 15 force
Saving Throws +5; Action Points 2
Traits
O Aura of Madness F Aura 3
Whenever a creature starts its turn within the aura, the Lake
Oracle can slide the target 1 square as an opportunity action.
Standard Actions
m Bite (force) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 2 (one creature); +11 vs. AC
Hit: 2d8 + 4 damage plus 1d8 force damage, and the Lake
Oracle slides the target 1 square.
m Claw F At-Will
Attack: Melee 2 (one creature); +11 vs. AC
Hit: 2d6 + 4 damage.
M Double Attack F At-Will
Effect: The Lake Oracle makes two claw attacks.
C Breath Weapon (force) F Recharge 5 6
Attack: Close blast 5 (creatures in blast); +10 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 2d10 + 4 force damage, and the target is dazed (save ends).
Miss: Half damage.
C Frightful Presence (fear) F Encounter
Attack: Close burst 5 (enemies in burst); +10 vs. Will
Hit: The target is stunned until the end of the Lake Oracle’s
next turn.
Aftereffect: The target takes a –2 penalty to attack rolls
(save ends).
Tactics
The dragon drops her disguise, uses frightful presence,
and then spends an action point to use her breath
weapon. The dragon then moves away, flying near
the ceiling or near the island until breath weapon
the Slaver’s Stone
Minor Actions
M Portent F At-Will, 1/round
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +8 vs. Will
Hit: Until the end of the Lake Oracle’s next turn, the target
takes a –2 penalty to any attack that includes the dragon as
a target and the target grants combat advantage.
Change Shape (polymorph) F At-Will
The lake oracle can alter its physical form to appear as a
unique human.
Triggered Actions
M Wing Scatter F At-Will
Trigger: An enemy moves into an adjacent square.
Attack (Immediate Reaction): Melee 1 (triggering enemy);
+10 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d8 + 4 damage, and the Lake Oracle knocks the
target prone.
Effect: The Lake Oracle shifts 1 square and flies 3 squares.
C Bloodied Breath F Encounter
Trigger: The Lake Oracle is first bloodied in the encounter.
Effect (Free Action): Breath weapon recharges, and the Lake
Oracle uses it.
Skills Arcana +9, Bluff +12, Insight +11
Str 17 (+6) Dex 13 (+4) Wis 17 (+6)
Con 16 (+6) Int 12 (+4) Cha 19 (+7)
Alignment Unaligned Languages Common, Draconic
recharges. She uses melee attacks against any crea-
ture that closes on her.
Her servants emerge from the waters to drag
people on the shore into the water.
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 the Slaver’s Stone

12 Murk Wretches (W) Level 5 Minion Brute

Medium natural humanoid (aquatic, blind) XP 50 each
HP 1; a missed attack never damages a minion. Initiative +4
AC 17, Fortitude 18, Reflex 17, Will 16 Perception +3
Speed 6, swim 3 Blind, blindsight 10
Immune blinded, gaze
Traits
Aquatic
The wretch can breathe underwater. In aquatic combat, it
gains a +2 bonus to attack rolls against nonaquatic creatures.
Standard Actions
m Claws F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +8 vs. AC
Hit: 5 damage, the wretch shifts 1 square, and the wretch pulls
the target 1 square to a square adjacent to it.
Skills Stealth +9
Str 17 (+5) Dex 15 (+4) Wis 12 (+3)
Con 14 (+4) Int 6 (+0) Cha 8 (+1)
Alignment Evil Languages Elven

Features of the Area

Illumination: This room is dark.
Ceiling: The ceiling is 30 feet overhead.
Water: Water squares adjacent to the shore count
as difficult terrain. Beyond these squares, a character
must swim (DC 10 Athletics check).
Skiff: The boat can hold two Medium or Small
creatures. Characters standing on the boat that make
an attack must immediately succeed on a DC 12
Acrobatics check or fall prone in the boat. Failure by
5 or more topples the character into the water.
Treasure: If the dragon does not grant the heroes
a boon, they can find a level 9 magic item on the
rocks where the dragon lairs.

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Print this page for players running Cluff, Zestren, or the Cled warriors.
Cluff Maclire Level 4 Soldier (Leader)
Medium natural humanoid, human XP —
HP 52; Bloodied 26; Surges 8 Initiative +6
AC 19, Fortitude 18, Reflex 16, Will 18 Perception +7
Speed 6
Standard Actions
m Bastard Sword (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +9 vs. AC
Hit: 1d10 + 7 damage.
r Javelin (weapon) F 2/Encounter
Attack: Ranged 10/20 (one creature); +9 vs. AC
Hit: 1d6 + 7 damage.
M Wolf Pack Tactics (martial, weapon) F At-Will
Effect: Before the attack, one ally adjacent to you or the target
can shift 1 square as a free action.
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +9 vs. AC
Hit: 1d10 + 7 damage.
M Hold the Line (martial, weapon) F Encounter
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +9 vs. AC
Hit: 1d10 + 7 damage.
Effect: Until the end of your next turn, allies adjacent to you
gain a +2 power bonus to AC and cannot be pushed, pulled,
or slid.
Move Actions
Knight’s Move F Encounter
Effect: Ranged 10 (one ally); the target takes a move action as
a free action.
Minor Actions
Leader (healing) F 2/Encounter
Effect: Close burst 5 (one ally); the target can spend a
healing surge.
Skills Intimidate +10
Str 18 (+6) Dex 12 (+3) Wis 10 (+2)
Con 12 (+3) Int 8 (+1) Cha 16 (+5)
Alignment Unaligned Languages Common, Dwarven
Equipment leather armor, bastard sword, 2 javelins
Cled Warrior Level 4 Minion Skirmisher
Medium natural humanoid, human XP —
HP 1; a missed attack never damages a minion. Initiative +4
AC 18, Fortitude 16, Reflex 16, Will 16 Perception +2
Speed 6
Standard Actions
m Spear (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +9 vs. AC
Hit: 5 damage (6 damage when charging).
Move Actions
Deft Advance F At-Will
The warrior shifts 2 squares.
Str 14 (+4) Dex 11 (+2) Wis 10 (+2)
Con 12 (+3) Int 9 (+1) Cha 8 (+1)
Alignment Unaligned Languages Common
Equipment hide armor, spear
the Slaver’s Stone
Zestren Level 4 Soldier
Medium fey humanoid, eladrin XP 175
HP 52; Bloodied 26 Initiative +5
AC 21, Fortitude 17, Reflex 17, Will 18 Perception +1
Speed 6 Low-light vision
Saving Throws +5 against charm effects
Standard Actions
m Longsword (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +9 vs. AC
Hit: 1d8 + 5 damage, and the target is marked until the end of
Zestren’s next turn.
M Greenflame Blade (fire, weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +9 vs. AC
Hit: 1d8 + 6 fire damage. Each enemy adjacent to the target
takes 3 fire damage.
C Corrosive Ruin (acid, implement) F Recharge 5 6
Attack: Close blast 3 (creatures in blast); +7 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d8 + 6 acid damage.
Move Actions
Fey Step (teleportation) F Encounter
Zestren teleports 5 squares.
Triggered Actions
Blinking Blade (fire, teleportation) F At-Will
Trigger: An adjacent enemy Zestren has marked shifts or
makes an attack that does not include him as a target.
Effect (Immediate Interrupt): The triggering enemy takes 5 fire
damage, and then Zestren teleports 3 squares.
Skills Arcana +11, Athletics +10, History +11
Str 16 (+5) Dex 12 (+3) Wis 8 (+1)
Con 12 (+3) Int 18 (+6) Cha 12 (+3)
Alignment Evil Languages Common, Elven
Equipment traveler’s clothes, chainmail, longsword
A u g u s t 2 010 | D u n g e o n 181
64
Campaign Workbook:
Sea Demon’s Shrine
By Richard L. Baker
illustration by Chris Burdett F cartography by Sean MacDonald
TM & © 2010 Wizards of the Coast LLC All rights reserved.

In the depths of a great cave filled with sea-ooze and

the briny smell of the deep lies a shrine dedicated
to the demon prince Demogorgon. The heroes
must race to escape the rapidly flooding chamber
before they are trapped in the water-filled room.
The rising water, however, is both friend and foe.

A u g u s t 2 010 | D u n g e o n 181
4

Encounters in this locale slowly move upward as
the water rises. The path to the higher ledge appears
and disappears as one by one floating rafts “fill in”
the missing stairs and are then submerged again. It’s
also a great location for an encounter with a mix of
aquatic and landbound monsters.
The default level for the hazards and obstacles in
the room is 5. If you use this encounter locale for a
higher-level encounter, consult the Difficulty Class
and Damage by Level table on page 42 of the Dungeon
Master’s Guide.
Read the following aloud when characters enter
the shrine:
This huge, dank cavern is dotted with patches of slick sea
ooze. Several stone idols in the shape of demonic fanged
octopi stand on stone pedestals and glow with a faint green
phosphorescence. Large pools of dark water lap softly in the
floor. The room climbs steeply to the east, ending in a high
ledge 75 feet above the floor at the far end of the room. A
precarious stone stair winds up toward the high ledge, but it
is broken by large gaps. A number of crude wooden rafts lie
chained to the floor below the gaps in the stair.
Flooding Room
The most important feature of the shrine is the fact
that it floods. Water fills the chamber at a constant
rate that drives the action upward throughout an
encounter. Several different mechanisms might begin
the flooding (choose one or more for the encounter):
F Tidal Bore: The shrine’s pools lead to sea caves
on a nearby coast, where shallow, narrowing
passages force the incoming tide into the room
periodically as a natural phenomenon. The
flooding begins automatically 1d10 rounds after
the characters enter the room.
Campaign Workbook: Sea Demon’s Shrine
F Idol Curse: When a creature sets off the Cursed The floats are tethered by chains to the floor of
Idol trap (see below), the trap also triggers the the room, so they don’t continue rising once the water
flooding of the chamber. rises over the elevations given for each floor; they’re
F Manually Activated: A monster in the room submerged by the rising water. However, the floats
pushes down the trigger pedestal on the high, are fitted with a mechanism that detaches them from
eastern ledge of the room. The mechanism opens the anchoring chain once the water is 10 feet over the
floodgates in passages below that begin the float, which sends each float rocketing to the surface
flooding. in an immense spray of water. (See the Detached
Float hazard.)
When the flooding begins, the doors at the west The room floods for 20 rounds, at which point
and east ends of the chamber are forced to close by water fills the room completely to its 100-foot ceil-
water-powered mechanisms, thus locking everyone ing. It remains flooded for 20 rounds, then the water
inside. begins to recede at the rate of 5 feet per round.
The water level in the room rises 5 feet at the end You can assume that swimming characters on
of every round. At the end of the first round of flood- the surface float on top of the water and are carried
ing, the floor of the western part of the chamber is upward as the water rises.
covered by 5 feet of water, but no other part of the
chamber is submerged. At the end of the second
round, water in the western part of the room is 10
feet deep and is lapping up the stairs that lead to the
nearest idol, but the rest of the room is dry. At the
end of the third round, the flooding water covers the
large central floor section of the room to a depth of
5 feet, at which point the western part of the room is
beneath 15 feet of water. Pay attention to the elevation
figures given on the map!
As the room floods, the floats rise naturally to
stay atop the water. After the first round of flooding,
the three floats along the south wall are bobbing
at the surface with 5 feet of water under them. The
stone steps to the west are 20 feet high and the ones
to the east are 40 feet high—the floats won’t rise up
and “complete” the stairs until rounds 5, 6, and 7
respectively.
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66

Cursed Idol Trap
The idols are potent magical traps. They attack any
creature who is not a worshiper of Demogorgon or
consecrated to Demogorgon’s service. Because they
restrain their victims, they can easily hold a character
in place as the water rises over his or her head.
Cursed Idol Level 5 Obstacle
Trap XP 350
A tendril of dark mist snakes out from the octopus idol and
solidifies into a black, oily tentacle.
Trap: This trap consists of the squares adjacent to each
idol. When a creature steps into the area of this attack, a
magical tentacle appears and attacks the creature.
Perception
F DC 22: The creature notices the dark tendrils of mist slowly
seething amid the idol’s stone tentacles.
F DC 26: The creature can see which squares are in range of
the tendrils.
Additional Skill: Religion
F DC 22: The character’s knowledge provides a +2 bonus to
Thievery checks to disable the trap.
Trigger Trigger
When a creature enters or begins its turn in a trapped
square, the trap attacks. Creatures which begin their turn
already restrained by the trap aren’t attacked again.
Attack
Opportunity Action Melee 0
Target: Creature in trapped square.
Attack: +8 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d10+4 damage, and the target is restrained (save ends).
Countermeasures
F A character who makes a DC 22 Thievery check can locate
the tiny vents which emit the mist and plug them with mud
or some other substance.
F A character who makes a DC 26 Acrobatics check can
move through a trigger square without provoking the
attack. The squares count as difficult terrain.
F A character within 3 squares who makes a DC 26 Religion
check as a standard action can suppress the curse until the
end of his next turn.
Campaign Workbook: Sea Demon’s Shrine
Detached Float Hazard
The floats are anchored to the bottom by chains, and
as the water rises above the length of the chain, they
become submerged. A secondary float mechanism
under each raft releases the chains from the raft once
the water rises more than 10 feet above the float level,
sending the float rocketing to the surface.
Detached Float Level 1 Obstacle
Hazard XP 100
The wooden raft shoots to the surface and strikes anyone
in the water above it.
Hazard: Each raft detaches from its mooring chain when
the water rises 10 feet above its anchor depth and rockets
to the surface, endangering creatures in the square above
and all adjacent squares.
Perception
F DC 20: The character notices the float beneath the water
surface.
F DC 25: The character notices the small float-and-pin
mechanism that will detach the float from its mooring, and
determines which squares are in danger.
The float detaches and attacks at the end of the round
in which the water depth increases to 10 feet above its
moored level. Each float attacks only once.
Attack
Free Action Close burst 1
Target: All creatures in the squares immediately above the
float, and in adjacent squares.
Attack: +6 vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d6 damage, and the target is pushed 1 square and dazed
until the end of its next turn.
Countermeasures
F The release mechanism can be jammed with a DC 20
Thievery check and a standard action, but you must be
adjacent to the float to make the skill check (and the float
may be submerged under 5 or 10 feet of water).
Encounters
The best encounters for this setting include a mix of
aquatic monsters to threaten characters in the water
and monsters with ranged attacks who can shoot at
characters trying to stay ahead of the rising water
by scrambling up the stairs and floats. Place aquatic
monsters in the pools on the shrine floor; as the water
level reaches each pool, the monsters can swim out
into the room.
Encounters suitable for the Sea Demon’s Shrine
include:
Level 5 encounter (XP 1,050):
F Cursed idols (level 5 trap)
F Surfacing floats (level 1 hazard)
F 2 visejaw crocodiles (level 4 soldier)
F 2 greenscale darters (level 5 lurkers)
Level 8 encounter (XP 1,400):
F Cursed idols (level 5 trap)
F Surfacing floats (level 1 hazard)
F 3 sahuagin raiders (level 6 soldiers)
F Sahuagin priest (level 8 artillery)
Level 9 encounter (XP 1,600)
F Cursed idols (level 5 trap)
F Surfacing floats (level 1 hazard)
F 2 piranha swarms (level 7 brutes)
F 2 flameskulls (level 8 artillery)
Level 17 encounter (XP 7,000)
F Cursed idols (leveled up to level 15 trap)
F 3 kuo-toa harpooners (level 14 soldiers)
F 2 kuo-toa monitors (level 16 skirmishers)
A u g u s t 2 010 | D u n g e o n 181
67

Piranha Swarm Level 7 Brute
Medium natural beast (aquatic, swarm) XP 300
HP 95; Bloodied 47 Initiative +7
AC 19, Fortitude 19, Reflex 20, Will 18 Perception +9
Speed swim 8
Resist half damage from melee and ranged attacks
Vulnerable 5 against close and area attacks
Traits
O Swarm Attack F Aura 1
The piranha swarm makes a basic attack as a free action
against each enemy that begins its turn in the aura.
Standard Actions
M Swarm of Teeth F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +11 vs. AC
Hit: 2d8+5 damage and ongoing 5 damage (save ends)
Str 16 (+6) Dex 19 (+7) Wis 13 (+4)
Con 15 (+5) Int 2 (–1) Cha 10 (+3)
Alignment Unaligned Languages —
Features of the Area
Illumination: The idols all glow with a faint
greenish phosphorescence, providing dim light in a
10-square radius from each one.
Ceiling: The ceiling is 100 feet above the lowest
part of the floor (the west end). Jagged iron blades
stud the ceiling like stalactites.
Ledges: The elevation of each section of the room
is marked in feet.
Walls: The cave walls are rough but slick (DC 20
Athletics check to climb).
Doors: The doors are large, strong doors of iron.
Barnacles encrust their inner surfaces. They slam
shut and seal when the room begins to flood (AC 4,
Ref 4, Fort 12, 40 hp, break DC 27). Opening the
door mechanism requires 6 successes at Thievery
(DC 20). Working underwater to open the door is
definitely an unfavorable circumstance!
Campaign Workbook: Sea Demon’s Shrine
Idols: These large idols are carved in the shape About the Author
Richard Baker is an award-winning game designer who has
of demonic octopi. Each is trapped (see Cursed Idol,
written numerous D&D adventures and sourcebooks, includ-
below). AC 4, Ref 4, Fort 12, 40 hp. ing the Manual of the Planes, Draconomicon 2, and the Dark
Pools: The pools are 20 feet deep and are linked Sun Campaign Guide. He’s also a New York Times bestselling
by 5-foot-wide passages at the bottom to each other author best-selling author of Forgotten R ealms novels such as
Condemnation, the Last Mythal trilogy, and the Blades of the
and the sea. When the room begins flooding, the
Moonsea series.
water pours up out of these pools.
Floats: Crude wooden rafts are lashed atop large
barrels. They lie on the chamber floor, where they
are tethered by long, iron chains. Floats lying on the
ground are difficult terrain and provide cover.
Some floats feature rickety steps so that they “fill
in” the stairs when the room floods to the right level.
A floating raft is an unstable surface (see Acrobat-
ics skill), DC 15. If a character fails this check by 4
or less, he loses his move action and fails to enter
the square. If he fails by 5 or more, he falls into an
­adjacent square.
Pedestal: If you decide that the room’s flooding is
manually activated, this stone block holds the trigger
mechanism. An adjacent creature can start the flood
cycle by using the trigger (a minor action). The trigger
mechanism can be jammed with a DC 26 Thievery
check as a standard action.
Sea Ooze: This is difficult terrain.
Flooding Water: As the cavern floods (see below),
it slowly fills with rough, turbulent water. Swimming
in this water requires an Athletics check at DC 15. If
you fail by 4 or less, you stay where you are and lose
the rest of your move action. If you fail by 5 or more,
you sink 1 square and risk drowning (page 159 of the
Dungeon Master’s Guide).
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Campaign Workbook: Sea Demon’s Shrine

A u g u s t 2 010 | D u n g e o n 181
69
 Eye on Dark Sun

Mar Juk-Adan,
Dune Trader
by Rodney Thompson  ✦  illustration by Sarah Stone
TM & © 2010 Wizards of the Coast LLC All rights reserved.

A u g u s t 2 010 | D u n g e o n 181
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The lifeblood of many remote settlements, of villages
far from the city-states, is the dune trader. Dune
traders are responsible for the transport and sale of
critical goods across the wastes of Athas, placing them
among the most shrewd and independent people on
the harsh desert world. Yet few dune traders are as
eccentric or as dangerous as Mar Juk-Adan, a human
dune trader who travels across the length and breadth
of the Tyr region in a caravan all his own.
Mar Juk-Adan is a gray-haired and bearded human
in his mid-forties, a ripe old age for a dune trader that
has spent as much time crossing Athas’s deserts as he
has. According to those who have traveled with him
for decades, Juk-Adan has always been the head of the
caravan; there was no caravan before Juk-Adan, and
no one has ever known Juk-Adan as anything but the
head of his caravan. He has earned the loyalty of the
men and women in his employ dozens of times over.
Though not the wealthiest or most well-known dune
trader, he does have a reputation for being a man that
knows how to get exactly what you need—for a price.
Mar Juk-Adan’s primary reputation is as a purveyor
of rare goods. Juk-Adan claims to have rarities from
dozens of places and times. Not only does he deal in
rare spices and hand-crafted goods from all of the
city-states, he also buys and sells antiquities from city-
states long gone. With such an eclectic collection, it is
no surprise that Juk-Adan rarely has more than one of
any item on hand. Though he coyly refuses to explain
where he obtained his wares to outsiders, the truth is
that he has an uncanny, almost supernatural knack for
finding things. On more than one occasion, Juk-Adan
has sent his guards into the ruins of ancient cities and
outposts to have them return laden with treasures of
ages past. How he finds these ruins when they seem
to hide from every other treasure hunter is a mystery,
though some of his guards and employees suspect
that he has an unrevealed psionic talent for finding
­specific objects no matter where they are hidden.
Though his trade in rare loot is lucrative, it is not
Juk-Adan’s ability to find lost treasure that makes him
so valuable—and so dangerous. Mar Juk-Adan can
get anything you need, as he is fond of telling people.
All he asks in return is time and a handsome sum of
money. Once a bargain has been struck, Juk-Adan has
never failed to produce the desired goods. In many
ways, he and his caravan are like bounty hunters of
exotic wares. They take a job, they disappear into the
desert for weeks or months at a time, and when they
return they have in their possession that which the
client sought. No barrier can stand in the way of Mar
Juk-Adan, so they say; not the law, not sorcerer-kings,
not even the Dragon itself. Juk-Adan has defied tem-
plars, stolen from the sorcerer-kings, spat in the eye
of dangerous elf clan leaders, and braved the horrors
of the Athasian desert, without ever once failing to
retrieve what was paid for.
Despite his smiling exterior and eagerness to
please, beneath the surface lies unmatched ruthless-
ness. To clients, Juk-Adan shows only the height of
civility; once on a job, all bets are off. Juk-Adan will
lie, cheat, steal, and kill—or have those in his employ
do those things for him—in order to obtain what
someone else has paid for. In order to ensure that he
always gets what he seeks, Juk-Adan has surrounded
himself with specialists in a variety of fields: psionic
mind-influencers to pry information out of unsuspect-
ing dupes, cutthroat minstrels to poison the drinks
of interlopers, skilled half-giants to slay guards and
scouts, light-footed rogues to sneak undetected into
palaces, and even masters of arcane magic for when
there is no alternative. Though Juk-Adan’s caravan
may look unremarkable at first glance, beneath its
surface, each member of the caravan has a skill that
Eye on Dark Sun
is essential when taking (by force if necessary) that
which their client seeks.
What is for Sale?
Mar Juk-Adan’s caravan is a mobile bazaar of strange
and exotic goods. Though the dune trader does stock
mundane supplies like food, water, and clothing, he is
better known for his ever-changing supply of strange
wares and contraband items. Below are just a few
things that can be found in the cornucopia of strange
items Juk-Adan has for sale.
Badges of Office: Mar Juk-Adan has the official
robes and badges of office of templars of every city-
state and will part with them for the right price and
a promise to not reveal where they were obtained.
Cilops Eggs: Juk-Adan carries a set of four petrified
cilops eggs. These eggs seem like stones to the casual
observer. They are kept in a sand-filled case made of
dark wood. Included in the sale is a ritual scroll that
will transform the petrified eggs into live cilops eggs
ready to hatch in a matter of days.
Renks: Juk-Adan always keeps several cases of
renks on hand for sale to travelers headed into the
deep desert. Renks are harmless slugs that hold water
better than any waterskin and are easier to transport
in significant quantities. Each renk provides one sur-
vival day to anyone that consumes it.
Writ of Passage for Eldaarich: One of the strang-
est items that Juk-Adan has for sale is this writ of
passage, which claims to be able to grant the bearer
entry into a city-state known as Eldaarich, though
Juk-Adan does not include the location of this mystery
city in the sale of the writ—that costs extra.
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Dealing with
Merchant Houses
It comes as no surprise that a man with a reputation
like Juk-Adan’s would eventually attract the attention
of the wealthy and powerful. The various merchant
houses of Athas sometimes employ Juk-Adan to get
rare goods for them, but more often, the ware they
seek is intrigue. For those with great wealth and
connections, Juk-Adan allows his clients to name a
different kind of “goods” as the object to be sought
out: secrets, kidnappings, assassinations, and other
political dealings. Should a noble with the right con-
nections request that Juk-Adan bring him the head
of an insolent rival, then Mar Juk-Adan delivers the
goods just as he would anything else. Fortunately for
the potential victims of the city-states, Mar Juk-Adan’s
shrewdness keeps him from staying in one place for
too long, lest he make too many enemies.
Over the years, Juk-Adan has built a good, work-
ing relationship with House M’ke of Raam. Even
with much of Raam in near-anarchy, Juk-Adan has
no problem navigating the dangerous city in order to
be in the service of House M’ke. Juk-Adan primarily
provides security for high-ranking members of House
M’ke; the “goods” that he is hired to obtain are power-
ful, trustworthy mercenaries that can be assured not
to turn on their charges when danger approaches.
Juk-Adan acts as a go-between and broker who negoti-
ates for both House M’ke and the mercenaries, and
secretly uses one of his caravan guards with a psionic
talent for mind reading to weed out the greedy from
the honorable.
Mar Juk-Adan’s relationship with House Stel of
Urik is not as mutually beneficial. Indeed, if Juk-Adan
can be said to have truly made enemies of anyone,
it is the leadership of House Stel. Over the years,
Juk-Adan has stymied the plans of House Stel again
and again by undermining their military power with
treachery and guile. House Stel, whose martial might
is unmatched among the merchant houses, has found
The Hurrum Tent
When conducting business with a new client for the
first time, Mar Juk-Adan always brings his custom-
ers into a special tent that travels everywhere with
his caravan and is set up each night when camp is
made. Inside this tent are many carpets and plush
accommodations. Juk-Adan takes all of his meals in
the tent and uses it for his quarters when no business
is being conducted. The unique feature of the tent is
the dozens of narrow, glass vials that hang from the
ceiling. Inside each vial is a single insect known as a
hurrum. The hurrums produce a soothing buzzing
sound that, when in harmony with the many others
hanging from the ceiling, create a gentle, droning
symphony that Juk-Adan finds pleasant. Most visi-
tors to the tent do as well, and business conducted in
the tent tends to go favorably for Juk-Adan, who has
become somewhat inured to the soothing effects of
the hurrums over the years.
Eye on Dark Sun
itself the object of Juk-Adan’s malevolent efforts so
many times that the dune trader has a “death on
sight” order at any House Stel mercantile outpost.
Juk-Adan cannot approach the city of Urik on fear
of death. That doesn’t mean Juk-Adan’s agents don’t
work in Urik on his behalf; he must simply be more
circumspect there. He often deals with third parties
for assistance.
Hurrum Level 1 Hazard
Object XP 100
Detect Perception DC 10 Initiative –
HP 1
AC 10, Fortitude 5, Reflex 10, Will —
Immune forced movement, all conditions, ongoing damage
Triggered Actions
Soothing Hum F At-Will
Trigger (No Action): A creature comes within 5 squares of the
hurrum
Target: The triggering creature.
Effect: The target takes a –5 penalty to Insight and Percep-
tion checks until they are no longer within 5 squares of
the hurrum. A creature can only suffer penalties from one
hurrum at a time.
Countermeasures
F Disable: Nature DC 14; the hurrum can be put to sleep
with a sound matching its hum.
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 Eye on Dark Sun

Juk-Adan’s Caravan Guard Level 3 Soldier About the Author

Medium natural humanoid XP 150 Rodney Thompson is an RPG designer at Wizards of the
HP 48; Bloodied 24 Initiative +4 Coast. Originally from Chattanooga, TN, his credits for Dun-
AC 19, Fortitude 17, Reflex 15, Will 14 Perception +8 geons & Dragons include Monster Manual 3, the Dark Sun
Speed 6 Campaign Setting, Player Essentials: Heroes of the Fallen Lands,
Player Essentials: Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms, and Monster
Traits
Vault.
O Caravan Sentinel F Aura 1
Enemies that start their turns adjacent to the caravan guard
are slowed until the start of their next turn.
Loyal Agent
Before the encounter begins, the caravan guard declares one
creature to be its master.
Standard Actions
m Carrikal (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +8 vs. AC
Hit: 1d8 + 7 damage.
r Dejada (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Ranged 10 (one creature); +8 vs. AC
Hit: 1d8 + 3 damage.
M Drive Back (weapon) F Encounter
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +8 vs. AC
Hit: 2d8 + 7 damage, and the caravan guard pushes the target
1 square and knocks it prone.
Miss: Half damage and the caravan guard knocks the
target prone.
M Warning Slash (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +8 vs. AC
Hit: 1d8 + 7 damage.
Effect: Until the end of the caravan guard’s next turn, if the
target is adjacent to the caravan guard and makes an attack
that does not include the caravan guard as a target, the
target takes 10 damage.
Triggered Actions
Intercept F At-Will
Trigger: An enemy within 5 squares makes an attack against
the caravan guard’s master.
Effect (Immediate Interrupt): The caravan guard shifts 4 squares
and makes a carrikal attack against the triggering enemy.
Str 18 (+5) Dex 13 (+2) Wis 14 (+3)
Con 16 (+4) Int 9 (+0) Cha 8 (+0)
Alignment unaligned Languages Common

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73
 Ed Greenwood’s
Eye on
the Realms

the Circle
of Fangs
by Ed Greenwood  ✦  illustration by William O’Connor

TM & © 2010 Wizards of the Coast LLC All rights reserved.

“Why the precise whereabouts of the rings can be traced,

and what future purpose this rumored cabal of wizards
might intend for wearers of those rings, are matters of
much wild speculation.”

A u g u s t 2 010 | D u n g e o n 181
74

Purple Dragons searching a house in Marsember
after the mysterious death of its longtime owner (the
trader Estran Vyathar, a suspected smuggler) found
the expected: a network of secret passages and cellars
full of heavy iron chests containing contraband. One
chest resembled all the others except for contents
both unexpected and grisly. By itself, in the otherwise
empty chest, was a severed human hand.
The dismembered left hand had begun to wither,
and in the expert opinion of Swordcaptain Merigo
Dunstrand of the Dragons, had been sliced from the
rest of the body (which was nowhere to be found)
less than a year before. It showed no signs of undeath
and was decomposing and mummifying in the usual
manner. None know to whom the hand belonged
originally, but it was wearing something that still
interests War Wizards and Cormyrean courtiers (and
increasingly, other folk across the Realms): a magic
ring of a hitherto-unknown sort.
Dubbed the Circle of Fangs by the War Wizard
investigators who examined it (Randaerl Lorthond
and his younger trainee, Tamphara Azmuir), this
plain-looking silver ring was untarnished despite its
contact with decomposing flesh. It bears no markings
except a small, simple circle graven on the outside of
the band. When Lorthond placed it on his finger, his
head filled immediately with silent mental visions
showing him precisely how to will the ring to activate
or cease functioning, and then the ring proceeded
to display its uses to him. The same thing occurred
when Tamphara donned it. Experimentation showed
it worked on any finger or thumb—but not a toe—of
either investigator. Both wizards successfully awak-
ened and wielded the ring.
When the investigators passed the ring to more
senior War Wizards, extensive experiments discov-
ered that each time the ring is activated, it drains an
almost imperceptible bit of energy from its wearer;
just enough energy to accomplish ... what?
What the Ring Does
When the ring is triggered into action, a halo of six
daggers appears in midair. These weapons look like
identical, plain, metal daggers (with simple quillons, a
large and flat pommel, and no wrappings on the grip).
In fact, they are sharp-edged and -pointed slivers of
magical force that look like solid metal. They don’t
react to magnetism or other forces in the way that
metal would.
The daggers vary in size depending on who’s wear-
ing the ring. They are exactly twice the length of the
wearer’s ring hand from the base of the wrist to the
tip of the longest finger. The diameter of the ring in
which they appear is always the width of the ring-
wearer’s outstretched fingers and thumb.
The open center of the ring is always 12 feet
directly in front of the longest finger of the ring-
wearer’s ring hand (and can be moved about by
pointing or wiggling that finger). The ring of daggers
can whirl to slash at foes and “tilt” individually to
point in any or all directions, as their wielder wills.
If a dagger is directed to thrust or stab, the entire
ring moves with it.
The ring-wearer can choose to have all the daggers
glow with a faint white radiance, or have them all
emit no light but reflect like sharp, bright metal, or all
be dark and nonreflective. If the ring wearer chooses
no form, the daggers do not glow but are reflective.
In all their forms, the daggers are silent (no metallic
clangs or clashing sounds).
Eye on the Realms
A Mystery Deepens
“A pretty little fighting toy” is how veteran War
Wizard Amundras Fireweather judged the ring in a
written report. He consigned the ring to secure stor-
age in one of the hidden vaults maintained by the
Wizards of War somewhere in central Cormyr. “More
an oddity than of real consequence.” However, that
assessment—though Fireweather had no way of know-
ing so at the time—fell far short of the truth.
Some glimmer of the evaluation’s inaccuracy
began to occur to Cormyr’s Wizards of War less than
a tenday later, when two other rings of the same sort
were promptly discovered. One was on a fine chain
around the neck of a drowned grick, which was wear-
ing a gold crown when a fisher’s net dredged the
creature up out of the Dragonmere. The other was
found unharmed on the ashes of what once had been
the right hand of a man who abruptly caught fire
while walking down a street in Yhaunn at midday
with no one nearby.
Such suspicious deaths are investigated, and so
word of the second ring came to Cormyr wrapped
in a rumor spread by friends and acquaintances of
that dead man—or from clerks recording what they
told local Sembian lawkeepers. The dead man was
Baerlond Durvorkar, a short, scuttling, hairy seller of
magic items, lore, and magic treasure maps. Accord-
ing to Durvorkar, who’d shown his new ring to several
friends and neighboring merchants, all of these
circles of fangs were created by a little-known cabal
of wizards called the Fael Threl (words that mean
“Watchful Wise” in Halruann), who can precisely
trace the whereabouts of each and every such ring at
all times.
War Wizards long ago learned the hard way not to
dismiss rumors without investigation. Respected War
A u g u s t 2 010 | D u n g e o n 181
75

Wizard Ambrithra Ravensilver ordered the Marsem-
ban ring to be retrieved, and she had it and the other
two rings examined exhaustively. Durvorkar’s ring
had to be stolen from Sembian authorities, but the
War Wizards accomplished that task with ease, sub-
stituting a superficially similar ring and apparently
making off with the original undetected.
Senior War Wizards examined the three rings
together at length. They discovered a webwork of
unknown enchantments, the same on each ring, that
could well involve some sort of remote tracing magic.
All three rings had additional properties that were
not mentally communicated to wearers.
As far as the War Wizards can tell, none had
heard of the Fael Threl before Durvorkar’s men-
tion of that group. The magic seller enjoyed a shady
reputation and far less than the status of a sage, but
he was known as an exaggerator rather than a liar
or a fabricator of full-blown fantasies. All the friends
and acquaintances who heard his Fael Threl story
believed it; investigators concluded that Durvorkar
had nothing at all to gain by inventing such a story.
The War Wizards formed an investigative team
to track down the Fael Threl—but the very night of
their founding, three of the five War Wizards named
to the team vanished from their (separate) lodgings
in Suzail. On all of their beds, written in the blood of
each missing wizard, was the same message: “Finding
Us Will Cost You Dearer than This.”
Eye on the Realms
The Fael Threl About the Author
Ed Greenwood is the man who unleashed the Forgotten
Realms on an unsuspecting world. He works in libraries,
Officially, Cormyrean and Sembian authorities are writes fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and even
silent about the rings and the murders of Durvorkar romance stories (sometimes all in the same novel), but he is
and the War Wizards. The Hunting Horn of the Forest still happiest churning out Realmslore, Realmslore, and more
Realmslore. There are still a few rooms in his house with
Kingdom, the most sober and thoughtfully written space left to pile up papers in . . .
broadsheet sold in Suzail, reported the deaths with
a minimum of lurid detail, mentioned the rings, and
added merely that “The identities and aims of the Fael
Threl are, as of this writing, unknown, and they seem
to want this state of public unawareness to continue.
Why the precise whereabouts of the rings can be
traced, and what future purpose this rumored cabal
of wizards might intend for wearers of those rings, are
matters of much wild speculation.”
Those words very accurately sum up the current
situation. The anonymous broadsheet writers even
avoided repeating one rumor that the War Wizards
think is likely true: That Durvorkar’s fiery death was
caused by the ring he was wearing and was worked
from afar through the ring. They did mention (cor-
rectly) that, “Investigations by our Wizards of War
continue, but as yet have yielded nothing.”
Ring of Circling Fangs Level 20
This slim, silver ring is engraved with a simple circle.
Item Slot: Ring 125,000 gp
Property: While you are bloodied, you gain an aura of force
daggers. Any adjacent creature that attacks you takes 10
force damage.
Property: As a minor action, you can cause the daggers to
shed dim light to a radius of 5 squares. The light can be
extinguished with a free action.
Power (Encounter F Force): Standard Action. Effect: One crea-
ture within 3 squares of you takes 20 force damage.
A u g u s t 2 010 | D u n g e o n 181
76
Explore
“With a crack o’ bone and a widenin’ grin,
Obmi collects his stake in the inn.
Bones might mend and pride can heal

Taer Lian
But don’t renege on a Bronzeknuckle deal.

—“The Bronzeknuckle Deal,”

Doresh:
a popular shanty in the foreign quarter.

Agents and Enemies

By Jeff LaSala
illustration by Craig J. Spearing
TM & © 2010 Wizards of the Coast LLC All rights reserved.

With jingle-jangs and fripperies, Who paints a smile on every face?

With tocsin tones and chiming knees, The Harlequinade! The Harlequinade!
With sweets and games all sure to please, Who rights each frown with laughing grace?
Who comes to town with all of these? The Harlequinade! The Harlequinade!

What’s that sound? What’s that sound? What do you call the time of your life?
The Harlequinade! The Harlequinade! The Harlequinade! The Harlequinade!
Whose voices sing a playful round? What do you call wits sharp as a knife?
The Harlequinade! The Harlequinade! The Harlequinade! The Harlequinade!

(Excerpt of boisterous chant sung by a trio of curious,

motley gnomes in a village square.)

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4

The inauspicious few who know about the Fortress of
Fading Dreams either try to forget they do or attempt
to use this knowledge for personal gain. Taer Lian
Doresh is a city out of myths where ancient minds
contemplate revenge against the world outside, where
hope is leached away by fear, where nightmares are
clothed in flesh. Although knowledge of the Fortress
and its location can grant one considerable power,
it also invites attention from those within—and few
things are more perilous than earning the interest of
these sinister fey. Yet not all who come and go within
its halls serve its interests. In fact, some might even
ally against Shan Doresh, the feyspire’s eladrin lord.
But in Taer Lian Doresh alliances—like dreams—are
doomed to fade.
Adjuvant,
Envoy of Blades
When word reached the Lord of Blades that a feyspire
had been discovered in the forests of the Lhazaar
mainland, he dispatched agents to learn more about
it. Upon hearing that it was a place of fleshbound
nightmares, he wasted no time in sending one of his
most trusted servants: Adjuvant, warrior envoy, who
often spoke for the Lord of Blades when the war-
forged tyrant sought allies against the Five Nations.
Adjuvant was tasked with making contact with the
Lord of the Fading Dream on behalf of his lord. It
took a very long time to find Taer Lian Doresh, but at
last he succeeded. Upon entering the Fortress, Adju-
vant extended a diplomatic, three-fingered hand in
greeting—and was promptly refused exit. There were
no discussions or exchange of court protocols. He’d
become a prisoner.
Explore Taer Lian Doresh
The warforged are of great interest to Shan Adjuvant in Combat
Doresh; they are a young race even by human stan-
Adjuvant travels and fights alone, but he has a few
dards, artificial yet living, and they do not sleep or
tricks up his composite sleeve when the odds are
dream. The eladrin lord allows Adjuvant to wander
stacked against him. Although he relies on his axe in
the halls of Taer Lian Doresh freely—that he might
the heat of battle, the haft at the other end serves as
study him when he so chooses—but he does not allow
a short-ranged wand of fire. With the authority given
the warforged to find the way out. Shan Doresh’s
him by the Lord of Blades, Adjuvant can temporarily
subjects have been instructed not to harm Adjuvant
immobilize his foes using halting words and will do so
except in self-defense.
early in a fight; he is brutally effective at cutting down
those who balk before him. When the tide of battle
Hook: Prison Break turns against him, his ruthless retaliation tends to even
Adjuvant is a deeply frustrated warforged. He has
the score.
been ordered by the Lord of Blades to maintain dip-
lomatic relations, but he is a warrior at heart and he
has been made a captive. Should he fight his way
out—he is sorely outmatched by the numerous and Encounter Group
powerful fey—or is finding the labyrinth’s exit merely
When Adjuvant is expecting a fight, he can conjure
a test? The predicament is an elaborate puzzle box he
a pair of grasping statues carved to resemble himself
must solve; therefore he spends his time studying the
by tossing an enchanted scrap of metal to the ground:
feyspire and searching for clues. If he meets visitors
a handmade gift from the Lord of the Blades himself.
such as the player characters, he seeks an alliance.
The statues crumble to dust when they are slain or
But in Adjuvant the player characters find a dan-
when the encounter has ended.
gerous ally. As a Blade, he is contemptuous of all
“breathers” but he realizes he might need assistance
Level 13 Encounter (XP 4,400)
to escape. Other warforged could discover that he is
F Adjuvant (level 16 elite soldier)
recruiting for the Lord of Blades. If the player char-
F 2 grasping statues (level 13 controller,
acters refuse to assist him, Adjuvant almost certainly
Dungeon #156)
attacks. Even if they succeed in helping him escape
Taer Lian Doresh, the warforged envoy likely turns
on them when the Fortress is safely behind. If they do
not serve the interest of the Lord of Blades, they are a
liability.
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78

Adjuvant Level 16 Elite Soldier
Medium natural humanoid (living construct) XP 2,800
HP 312; Bloodied 156 Initiative +12
AC 32, Fortitude 30, Reflex 28, Will 28 Perception +16
Speed 5
Saving Throws +2; Action Points 1
Traits
Against the Odds
Adjuvant gains a +1 bonus to melee attacks when he is adja-
cent to more than one enemy.
Overbearing Stance
Adjuvant cannot be the target of forced movement by enemies
he has marked.
Standard Actions
m Greataxe (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +23 vs. AC
Hit: 2d12 + 11 damage, and the target is marked until the end
of Adjuvant’s next turn.
r Fire Wand (fire) F Recharge 4 5 6
Attack: Ranged 10 (one creature); +19 vs. Reflex
Hit: 4d10 + 7 fire damage, and the target falls prone.
Amdrashar,
Consul of the
Dreaming Dark
Since the stranding of the feyspires on the Day of
Mourning, the Dreaming Dark has taken a keen
interest in them—but none more than Taer Lian
Doresh. Although the Fortress’s existence on both
Dal Quor and Eberron does not make it a standing
doorway between the two, it is a window through
which the quori can extend physical hands. Perhaps
it can be exploited in their schemes. Recently, it has
fallen to Amdrashar of Riedra to investigate Taer
Lian Doresh from the vantage of the waking world.
C Halting Words (weapon) F At-Will
Attack: Close burst 3 (enemies in burst); +19 vs. Will
Hit: The target is immobilized (save ends).
Effect: Adjuvant can reroll a greataxe attack he makes against
any enemy immobilized by halting words. He must use the
second roll, even if it’s lower.
Minor Actions
Envoy’s Resolve (healing) F Encounter
Effect: Adjuvant gains 15 temporary hit points and can make
a saving throw against an ongoing damage effect. If he uses
this power while bloodied, he also regains 15 hit points.
Triggered Actions
C Ruthless Retaliation (weapon) F Encounter
Trigger: Adjuvant is bloodied.
Effect (Immediate Reaction): Adjuvant makes a greataxe attack
against all enemies adjacent to him.
Skills Diplomacy +18, Endurance +18, Intimidate +18
Str 23 (+14) Dex 14 (+10) Wis 17 (+11)
Con 20 (+13) Int 21 (+13) Cha 20 (+13)
Alignment evil
Languages Common, Draconic, Elven
Equipment plate armor, greataxe, short sword
Of the few quori granted permission to come and
go within its halls in Dal Quor, she is the only one
who can exit onto Eberron because that is her point
of entry—as one of the Inspired. She is an esteemed
Riedran consul, tasked with representing the Dream-
ing Dark’s worldly interests among the nightmare fey.
The Dreaming Dark plays a delicate game, because
the quori must defer to Shan Doresh’s laws if they are
to retain access to the Fortress.
Like all of the Inspired, Amdrashar appears to
be a human of unearthly beauty with vaguely elven
features and a fiendish grace. Behind this veneer of
elegance lurks a malignant spirit as vile as her plans.
Whenever she sets foot within the Fortress of Fading
Dreams, her true self—a hashalaq quori—is force-
Explore Taer Lian Doresh
fully separated from her host body, where she can
float freely beside it. Only in Taer Lian Doresh can
one of the Inspired be encountered as two separate
bodies: the humanlike vessel and the quori itself. In
this state, the vessel’s mind regains control of its body,
though it has been conditioned since birth to obey
and defend the quori.
Hashalaq quori usually assume a humanoid form,
but their bodies are composed of hundreds of flex-
ible, jellylike tendrils that can stretch or compress
into many different shapes. Amdrashar arranges the
fine coils of her body to resemble that of a woman in
flowing blue robes, with both capillary hair and soft,
mesmerizing light issuing from a deep hood.
Amdrashar in Combat
Physical violence of any kind is a personal failure to
Amdrashar; her goals are far too important to risk
even a few rounds of combat, but she is deadly when
forced into it. Because of astute observer, she can read
the thoughts of those around her and benefit from
powerful insight. She attempts to use mindwipe at the
battle’s outset to soften enemy minds to her psychic
attacks and use dreamstealer’s charm to dominate
chosen foes. If threatened by a particular opponent,
she uses familiar face against him or her, appearing in
their mind’s eye as a close friend or family member
they dare not strike. Empathic feedback is Amdrashar’s
most powerful defense, ensuring that those who
would harm her suffer as greatly as her.
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Hook: Damsel in Disguise
Amdrashar can be encountered both within Taer
Lian Doresh (in her true quori form, drifting beside
her vessel) or without (as an Inspired, quori and
vessel combined), studying the nature of the Fortress
and its unique planar duality. She does not serve
Shan Doresh, but she is considered a welcome guest
of the nightmare fey and treats them with outward
respect. As a loremaster of the quori, she naturally
involves herself in the intrigues of Taer Lian Doresh,
its ­v isitors, and its victims. Using her malleable form,
she usually wears the guise of a visitor to the Fortress
to fool other visitors—perhaps as a Karrnathi ambassa-
dor, a Lhazaarite explorer, or a wizard of the Twelve.
She typically adopts a demure persona to earn the
trust and protection of those she wishes to study and
inevitably betray.
Amdrashar enjoys greater freedoms within Taer
Lian Doresh than most quori. She can wander the
labyrinthine passages above and below the feyspire
without expressed permission. If the player charac-
ters have ever made an enemy of the Dreaming Dark,
Amdrashar can be called upon to eliminate them.
When she must kill, she prefers to manipulate others
into the murderous act, but if her plans unravel she
will do whatever it takes to get the job done.
Explore Taer Lian Doresh
Amdrashar’s Entourage
Amdradhar is seldom alone, even when she appears
to be. She routinely keeps a small group of servitors
on hand. Among them are the wraiths of some of
her previous victims who were driven to rapturous
madness before she killed them. If she is encountered
outside of Taer Lian Doresh, Amdrashar possesses the
same statistics as a Dreaming Dark Assassin (Eberron
Campaign Guide, page 192). Within the Fortress, she
can be battled in her true and more powerful form
as a halashaq quori (statistics on page 8) side by side
with the Inspired vessel she normally inhabits.
Level 17 Encounter (XP 9,000)
F Amdrashar (level 18 elite controller)
F 1 Inspired vessel (level 9 skirmisher)
F 4 shattered wraiths (level 16 lurker minions;
­Dungeon #163)
F 2 sword wraiths (level 17 lurker; Monster Manual,
page 267)
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Amdrashar Level 18 Elite Controller
Medium immortal magical beast (quori) XP 4,000
HP 348; Bloodied 174 Initiative +12
AC 32, Fortitude 30, Reflex 28, Will 28 Perception +18
Speed 8, fly 8 (hover)
Immune fear; Resist 5 psychic
Saving Throws +2; Action Points 1
Traits
Astute Observer
Amdrashar cannot be surprised. Amdrashar also has a +2 bonus
to Bluff and Insight checks (this bonus is already factored into
statistics below).
Standard Actions
m Idyllic Touch (psychic) ✦ At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +23 vs. Reflex
Hit: 3d8 + 13 psychic damage, and the target is immobilized
(save ends). If the target is already immobilized, it loses one
healing surge.
R Dreamstealer’s Charm (psychic) ✦ Encounter
Attack: Ranged 10 (one creature); +22 vs. Will
Hit: The target is dominated (save ends).
C Mindwipe (psychic) ✦ Encounter
Attack: Close burst 10 (enemies in burst); +22 vs. Will
Hit: 2d8 + 8 psychic damage, and the target is dazed and gains
psychic vulnerability 5 (save ends both).
Move Actions
R Familiar Face (psychic) ✦ At-Will
Attack: Ranged 10 (one creature); +22 vs. Will
Hit: The creature cannot attack Amdrashar (save ends, with a
–2 penalty to the saving throw). Amdrashar can affect only
one creature at a time with this power.
Minor Actions
Malleable Form (polymorph) ✦ At-Will
Effect: Amdrashar can alter her physical form to take on the
appearance of any Medium humanoid, including a unique
individual.
Triggered Actions
Empathic Feedback (psychic) ✦ At-Will
Trigger: Amdrashar is hit with a damaging attack.
Effect (Immediate Reaction): The attack deals half damage to
Amdrashar and half to the triggering attacker. The damage
taken becomes psychic damage.
Skills Bluff +24, Insight +20, Intimidate +22, Stealth +17
Str 14 (+11) Dex 16 (+12) Wis 18 (+13)
Con 22 (+15) Int 24 (+16) Cha 26 (+17)
Alignment evil
Languages Common, Quori, telepathy 10
Explore Taer Lian Doresh
Inspired Vessel Level 9 Skirmisher
Medium natural humanoid (Inspired) XP 400
HP 95; Bloodied 47 Initiative +9
AC 24, Fortitude 21, Reflex 23, Will 21 Perception +10
Speed 6 Low-light vision
Traits
Combat Advantage
A vessel deals 2d6 extra damage against any target granting
combat advantage to it.
Standard Actions
m Blade of Focus (psychic) ✦ At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +14 vs. AC
Hit: 2d8 + 8 damage, and ongoing 5 psychic damage
(save ends).
M Dagger Dance (weapon) ✦ At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +14 vs. AC
Hit: 2d8 + 8 damage.
Effect: The vessel shifts 2 squares and makes a second attack
against the same target or a different one.
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +14 vs. AC
Hit: 2d8 + 8 damage.
Triggered Actions
M Dreamstab (weapon) ✦ At-Will
Trigger: An enemy hits the vessel with a melee attack.
Effect (Immediate Reaction): The vessel uses blade of focus
against the triggering creature, then shifts 3 squares.
Skills Bluff +13, Diplomacy +13, Stealth +12
Str 13 (+5) Dex 17 (+7) Wis 13 (+5)
Con 15 (+6) Int 20 (+9) Cha 18 (+8)
Alignment unaligned Languages Common, Quori
Equipment cloth armor, dagger
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The Harlequinade The fey of the Harlequinade answer chief ly to The gnomes of the Harlequinade each look a little
their patriarch, Marrot, who remains at his lord’s different, but there is a subtle uniformity to their
When it was clear that Taer Lian Doresh wasn’t going side in Taer Lian Doresh, but they unswervingly dress and appearance. Some aspects of their cos-
to drift back to Dal Quor, the Region of Dreams, Shan serve the interests of the Fading Dream as a whole. tumes might even be part of their Dal Quor-twisted
Doresh summoned his royal advisors. Among these The troupe consists mostly of gnomes, but a few bodies: what appears to be a gnome on stilts might, in
was Marrot the Fool, an old friend, court jester, and eladrin, nymphs, and satyrs have joined in their fact, be a gnome with grotesquely long legs; a contor-
patriarch of a clan of gnome troubadours known sinister brand of merrymaking. Without exception, tionist’s natural position might be contorted; oversized
across all of Thelanis. The Shrouded Sages were also all members are wyrds, fey from Taer Lian Doresh, shoes might be oversized feet; a blood-red, bulbous
consulted and, under Santyriana’s direction, brewed a and all well remember their “sojourn” in Dal Quor. nose might not be a prosthetic. In addition, all the
philter that would incite nightmares in those mortals It is some of that unspeakable horror they wish to gnomes of the Harlequinade have a row of sharp,
who drank of it. More importantly, the spirits of these impress upon their audience. interlocking teeth like a piranha’s.
dreamers would be summoned to Taer Lian Doresh
as they slept, to bear the scrutiny of the Fading
Dream. Their plan was to begin exploring the wishes
and fears of everyday people, soldiers, and rulers of
Khorvaire and beyond. When the time was right, it
was Marrot who volunteered the service of his gnome
kinfolk, whose task it became to carry their sweet and
soporific draught into the larger world. And so the
Harlequinade was born.
On the surface, the Harlequinade appears to be
a traveling troupe of comedic performers, minstrels,
and sideshow hawkers who provide entertainment
for coin. Brightly colored wagons festooned with bells
and garish, motley costumes are their hallmarks. As
their caravans approach a village, jovial barkers skip
ahead and spread word of their arrival and of the
sights, sounds, and spectacles they offer. The Harle-
quinade specializes in madcap antics, buffoonery, and
scurrilous music. Yet beneath the mask of comedy,
they are still agents of the Fading Dream, purveyors
of a nightmare-inducing potion.

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Harlequins in Combat
The gnomes of the Harlequinade delight in violence.
They use their clublike battes (slapsticks) to daze their
opponents with thunderous force as they prance and
somersault across the battlefield using fray & cavort,
frustrating most attempts to pin them down. When
more than one enemy is dazed, they use withering pan-
tomime to devastate them; if only one enemy is dazed,
they’ll give them a fool’s bite.
Hook: To Sleep,
Perchance to Scream
Keeping well away from major cities and the atten-
tion of other feyspires, Harlequinade caravans travel
only to small rustic towns in Khorvaire, falsifying an
association to House Phiarlan and its famous Car-
nival of Shadows to attract paying customers. These
pernicious fey have one goal—to recruit nightmares
from abroad—but they are still entertainers at the core
and enjoy delighting their victims before ensnaring
them. Members of the crowd who look powerful or
interesting become candidates for the philters of the
Fading Dream they carry: The gnomes slip the potion
into drinks at the first opportunity or even give it to
candidates outright as a sweet confectionary bever-
age. Then they’ll let the philters, and Shrouded Sages
back home, take it from there.
Send in the Clowns!
It’s rare to find any members of the Harlequinade
alone. In addition to the strength in numbers they
prefer, the gnomes travel with hired or coerced
muscle.
Level 9 Encounter (XP 2,450)
F 4 Harlequinade gnomes (level 8 skirmishers)
F 3 human mercenaries (level 3 soldier)
F 2 mercenary wizards (level 7 artillery)
Player characters will inevitably be targeted. All
others are fair game for the slaughter, provided the
gnomes can catch their victims alone or without risk
of garnering the attention of local authorities. The
Harlequinade sometimes kidnaps choice victims
before stealing away like gypsies. Some of their “hired
hands” and sideshow freaks were once delighted
­audience members.
Explore Taer Lian Doresh
Harlequinade Gnome
Small fey humanoid
Level 8 Skirmisher
XP 350
HP 91; Bloodied 45 Initiative +9
AC 22, Fortitude 21, Reflex 21, Will 19 Perception +11
Speed 6 Low-light vision
Immune dazed, fear; Resist 5 psychic
Saving Throws +2 against immobilized, slowed
Standard Actions
m Slapstick (thunder, weapon) ✦ At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one creature); +13 vs. AC
Hit: 2d4 + 7 thunder damage, and the target is dazed
(save ends).
M Fool’s Bite ✦ At-Will
Attack: Melee 1 (one dazed creature); +11 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 2d8 + 7 damage, and the target is stunned until the end
of the gnome’s next turn.
C Withering Pantomime (psychic) ✦ Recharge 5 6
Attack: Close burst 2 (enemies in burst); +11 vs. Will
Hit: 2d12 + 5 psychic damage, and the gnome slides the target
2 squares. If the target is dazed or stunned, the attack deals
1d12 extra damage.
Effect: The gnome shifts 2 squares before or after the attack.
Move Actions
Dark Step (teleport) ✦ Encounter
Effect: The gnome teleports 5 squares and gains a +2 bonus to
all defenses until the end of its next turn.
Fray & Cavort ✦ At-Will
Effect: The gnome shifts 5 squares.
Triggered Actions
Fade Away (illusion) ✦ At-Will
Trigger: The gnome takes damage.
Effect (Immediate Reaction): The gnome becomes invisible until
after it hits or misses with an attack or until the end of its
next turn.
Skills Acrobatics +14, Bluff +12, Intimidate +12, Stealth +14,
Thievery +14
Str 15 (+6) Dex 20 (+9) Wis 14 (+6)
Con 19 (+8) Int 15 (+6) Cha 17 (+7)
Alignment evil Languages Common, Elven
Equipment slapstick
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Heroic Nightmares
As noted in its first article in Dungeon #178, Taer Lian
Doresh is a paragon tier location. It was suggested
that agents of the fey might approach the characters
during the heroic tier to study them, intent on luring
them to Taer Lian Doresh only when their nightmares
are ripe—but you have other ways to use the Fortress
early in your campaign. The gnomes of the Harlequi-
nade (level 8 monsters) and the philters of the Fading
Dream are one such way. The philters are more of
a plot device and adventure hook than a portable
magic item.
If the characters drink of the philters—knowingly
or not!—you can bring them in spirit to Taer Lian
Doresh in a dream sequence. Even outmatched
by the powerful, paragon-tiered fey of the Fading
Dream, they can explore the ancient feyspire and
interact with its denizens without the risk of death
(though they can find worse fates there). Consider
making this a side trek adventure or a taste of what’s
to come if you intend to use Taer Lian Doresh in the
paragon tier. There needn’t even be combat, but if
a fight breaks out, there shouldn’t be any long-term
mechanical danger. If a player character is “killed”
during these nocturnal adventures, he or she will
merely awaken. You might impose some sort of
penalty for “dying” in a dream, such as the tempo-
rary loss of a healing surge or two. At the very least,
characters might earn the ire of the Fading Dream.
Explore Taer Lian Doresh
Bad Dreams
Every wagon or caravan of the Harlequinade contains
at least one cache of philters of the Fading Dream. They
are bottled in unassuming, colorful glass vials and
So what do the fey want? Shan Doresh and his
smell and taste like sweet, peculiar liqueurs, but these
subjects wish to observe the spirits of dreamers and
sinister gnomes are not above using the philter as an
the nightmares they engender. When the player char-
ingredient in the making of sweetmeats for children.
acters dream and “arrive” at the gates of Taer Lian
Only the Shrouded Sages in Taer Lian Doresh can brew
Doresh, they might be observed discreetly or they
the philters. Whenever a caravan runs out, the Harlequi-
might be ambushed, shackled, and brought before
nade gnomes return home for a fresh supply.
any of the notable fey: Santyriana, the Shrouded
Sages, the Paranymph, or even Shan Doresh himself
(or any of the nonplayer characters in this article). Or Philter of the Fading Dream Level 8+
perhaps they’ll be left to wander freely like Adjuvant, This delicious nectar tastes of a bittersweet wine, but it ensures
to be studied by unseen fey. that its imbiber will not rest easy.
Through the philters, the lords of the Fading Dream Other Consumable 200 gp
Power (Consumable): Minor Action. The next time you take an
could learn more about the state of Eberron, the
extended rest, you fall into a deep sleep, whereupon your
powers and treasures to be exploited, and the heroes dream spirit is summoned to the halls of Taer Lian Doresh.
arrayed against them. Just the same, such an encoun-
ter can inform the player characters of threats to
come. Most imbibers of the philter eventually awake
in a fevered sweat from their ordeal, their memory of
the nightmare fading quickly. The player characters,
however, are not most people; they will remember
what they saw.
Keith Baker’s novel The Faded Dream (October
2010) provides a deeper look into the story of Taer
Lian Doresh and its lords.
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Sidgevin, Viscount
Vindicator
The Fortress of Fading Dreams numbers more than
three thousand eladrin within its ancient and disqui-
eting halls, but none cries for the blood of outsiders
more than Sidgevin. Formerly viscount of a small
domain just outside of Shae Doresh before it was
exiled to Dal Quor, Sidgevin answered his liege’s call
to arms against the giants and met the same fate as
all the fey in the Spire of Dreams. Now denied sover-
eign authority of his own, Sidgevin’s frustration and
rage has given him an obsessive lust for slaughter
and made him Shan Doresh’s personal attack dog.
Foregoing fear as a weapon, Sidgevin is one of the few
of the Fading Dream fey who would rather slay than
torment an enemy. Accordingly, Sidgevin regularly
counsels Shan Doresh to avenge and subjugate the
mortal world, not merely study and exploit it. This
bloodlust has denied him a place among his liege’s
elite Knights of Terror, another frustration poisoning
his pride.
Sidgevin appears like any regal eladrin warrior,
handsome and resplendent in mithral chainmail, the
very picture of a forest lord from ancient tales. Yet
like all fey of the Fading Dream, his noble personage
includes the unsettling aspects of a nightmare. Sid-
gevin wears his contempt for outsiders like a mask he
cannot remove, exuding hate in a palpable rage.
Tactics
Although he’s tougher than he looks, Sidgevin stays on
the offense at all times. His favored weapon is a dou-
ble-bladed khopesh which roils with black smoke and
stretches its size on a whim. When he is sufficiently
surrounded, he uses bladesmoke to injure as many of
his enemies as possible while obscuring himself at the
same time. He repels especially dangerous opponents
and uses his javelin to pin down those who would
escape him. No quarter is reserved for his favored
enemy, usually one of the player characters who has
insulted him the most or proves the hardest to kill.
Sidgevin’s Lackeys
A duelist at heart, Sidgevin prefers to challenge his
enemies one on one. However, when he expects to
challenge multiple foes, he is sure to include a pair of
loyal fearmongers.
Level 16 Encounter (XP 7,600)
F Sidgevin (level 19 elite soldier)
F 2 Fading Dream fearmongers (level 16 artillery;
Eberron Campaign Guide, page 144)
Explore Taer Lian Doresh
Hook: Throwing Down
the Gauntlet
Sidgevin craves violence. He seeks any excuse to
shed the blood of his enemies, and to him, everyone
who is not part of the Fading Dream is an enemy.
The moment he is made aware of visitors to Taer
Lian Doresh, Sidgevin makes his presence known—
especially to player characters. If they are invited on
peaceable terms, he adopts an arrogant civility that
poorly conceals his hate, seeking any excuse to be
insulted or to hear his lord slandered. In short, he
is spoiling for a fight at all times and will seek the
permission from Shan Doresh to challenge the player
characters. Even under a truce, Sidgevin looks for a
loophole.
About the Author
Jeff LaSala is a writer of speculative fiction and an artificer
of RPGs. His Eberron novel, The Darkwood Mask, was nomi-
nated for the Scribe Award and showcases his love for all
things dark, monstrous, and masked. Many of his ideas are
drawn from the cthonic depths of New York City, where he
(roll 1d4):
1—Dwells with an Argentine mermaid—and married her.
2—Masquerades as a normal person.
3—Imagines a world splintered into sorry hemispheres.
4—Lurks like a gargoyle over his website: ashlock.org.
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Sidgevin Level 19 Elite Soldier C Bladesmoke (weapon, zone) ✦ Encounter

Medium fey humanoid XP 4,800
Attack: Close burst 2 (each enemy in burst); +24 vs. Reflex
HP 352; Bloodied 176 Initiative +17
Hit: 4d8 + 9 damage.
AC 35, Fortitude 31, Reflex 32, Will 31 Perception +19
Effect: Sidgevin creates a zone in a close burst 2 that lasts until
Speed 6 Low-light vision
the end of Sidgevin’s next turn. The zone blocks line of sight
Immune fear; Resist 5 psychic
for all creatures except Sidgevin.
Saving Throws +2; Action Points 1
Move Actions
Traits
Dark Step (teleport) ✦ Encounter
O Deadly Assertion ✦ Aura 1
Effect: Sidgevin teleports 5 squares and gains a +2 bonus to all
When any enemy within the aura makes an attack that does
defenses until the end of his next turn.
not include Sidgevin as a target, Sidgevin can make a khopesh
Minor Actions
attack against it.
C Mounting Rage (weapon, zone) ✦ Recharge 5 6
Standard Actions
Attack: Close burst 2 (enemies in burst); +22 vs. Reflex
m Khopesh (weapon) ✦ At-Will
Hit: 4d8 + 9 damage, and the target is dazed (save ends).
Attack: Melee 2 (one creature); +26 vs. AC
Triggered Actions
Hit: 4d8 + 9 damage, and the target is marked (save ends).
No Quarter (weapon) F At-Will
M Repel (weapon) ✦ At-Will
Trigger: A marked enemy within 2 squares of Sidgevin is
Attack: Melee 2 (one creature); +26 vs. AC
bloodied.
Hit: 3d8 + 9 damage, and the target is pushed 2 squares and
Effect (Immediate Reaction): Sidgevin makes a khopesh attack
is stunned (save ends).
against the triggering enemy.
R Javelin (weapon) ✦ At-Will
Skills Athletics +20, Intimidate +16
Attack: Ranged 10 (one creature); +26 vs. AC
Str 22 (+15) Dex 22 (+15) Wis 21 (+14)
Hit: 3d8 + 14 damage, and the target is immobilized until
Con 16 (+12) Int 18 (+13) Cha 15 (+11)
the end of Sidgevin’s next turn.
Alignment chaotic evil Languages Common, Elven
Equipment chainmail, longsword, 10 javelins

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 save my game

Taking Time on
the Other Side

D
by Stephen Radney-MacFarland
illustration by Rob Alexander

I went to Gen Con this year–the first time in 10 years prepping and presenting various offerings from the
going on my own dime–and it was awesome! I played D&D organized play program. RPGA DMs easily
a lot of games (my group won the D&D Open Cham- clock more hours of D&D than four or five home
pionship, and yes I’m bragging), talked to old friends, game-only DMs combined. This practice is a crucible
and more importantly, watched other DMs work. I for proficiency. If you want to improve your skill as a
played under and watched a lot of DMs. This is a bit of DM, I would suggest volunteering to run games for
a rarity (that I played, not that the DMs were good). As the RPGA.
a habitual DM, I rarely swap sides of the DM’s screen.
I’m OK with that because I love the continual buzz of Let the Players Manage
DMing. When I do play, because I’m not constantly on Themselves
the run, I watch other DMs and learn from them.
I’ve actually discussed this topic extensively and
I’m not talking about the products they use for
provided quite a few tips on how you can do it, but
tracking. What I’m talking about are the decisions
here’s a definite rule: When a player asks you if they
made and practices performed by those DMs and
can track initiative or any other transparent aspect of
their patterns of use. You can’t buy these tricks, and
the game, you say yes. When you’re DMing, you are
you need to train your eye to catch them. You have to
handling so many variables and listening to so many
watch, recollect, and learn.
voices that any help you can get from the players is
These, I think, are the most important tips I picked
gaming gold. It frees up your time for more important
up from other DMs throughout the weekend. Many of
things like tactics and roleplaying.
them I knew and even practiced to some extent, but
What do I mean by a transparent aspect of the
the stellar DMs at the RPGA area showed me ways to
game? Anything you and the players should both
improve and perfect them.
know. Traditionally things like hit points and defenses
For those who may be scoffing at my mention of
have been off that list, but to be honest, if you’re
RPGA DMs—don’t. These are talented and dedicated
looking to speed up your game (not to mention your
folks who hail from all over the world and descend
precision when it comes to these numbers) and
like red-shirted locusts into the Sagamore Ballroom
your group is—shall we say—mechanically inclined,
to ensure four days of D&D bliss. Most run their
you may want to give it a shot. Many groups track
own beloved home games on top of the hours spent
defenses anyway, and there are even some that will

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track damage and estimate hit points based on when
a monster becomes bloodied. You might as well put
that brainpower to work. I know, this kind of pure
gameism chips away at some beloved illusions of
RPGs, but some groups find the increased transpar-
ency satisfying. You can also be a little choosy when
you decide to do it. If you have a whole gaggle of mon-
sters on the field (minions or not), being transparent
with the cannon fodder frees up more time and brain-
power for the meatier and less predictable challenges.
Just having the players track initiative and condi-
tions speeds your play, frees up precious brainpower
and time to describe environments, to roleplay, and
to run encounters. In a convention environment, it
ensures that you can run those fun but stressful timed
encounters in events like the Dungeons & Dragons
Championship, the D&D Delve, and Living Forgotten
Realms Battle Interactive. I know what some of you
are thinking; I suffer the same thoughts. The DM is the
ultimate authority at the table. Authority often doesn’t
like to relinquish control, but sometimes it should.
Speed and Music
Here is a very simple trick for any DM that’s often
hard to execute: let the players choose the speed of
play. RPGA DMs, the ones who have been doing it
for years, are really good at this. They know nothing
frustrates a fast group as much as a DM that seems to
be slowing down, and nothing bewilders a slow group
like a lightning fast DM. Even the same group will
vary its speed of play based on a number of factors. As
the pace of play increases and decreases, you should
match it. This will help with both the narrative and
the combat pacing.
save my game
This assumes that you can run a game quickly. If with a remote track-changer will due. No matter how
you’re a new DM or you haven’t had much practice you store the music, be sure to keep a playlist handy so
at shifting gears, the thought of trying to manage a you can find the tune you’re looking for.
really fast-moving game may make your hair stand on
end. How many mistakes are you going to make? At Respond to Roleplaying
first . . . probably a lot. But give it time. Like anything
Not every group roleplays. There are a lot of combat
else, you become better by practicing. Don’t sweat
monkeys out there, and even groups that think they
small hiccups. Every time you recognize a mistake,
are hardcore roleplayers might be surprised at how
you’ve learned something you can do better.
crunchy they really are, if they had a chance to sit
For example, in an attempt to speed up my game
back and watch themselves play. It’s easy in the rush
and be more environmentally friendly (I’ll admit
of conditions, modifiers, and questions about forced
it, I’m a secret hippie), I started tracking initiative
movement to skip right over a player’s attempt at real
on a really cool iPhone app rather than my handy-
roleplaying when it pops up. Keep an ear open and be
dandy index cards. Unfortunately, I could not get
ready to respond.
the phone to think faster than my hands can move.
At the first hint of roleplaying, respond in kind.
The result was that using the app slowed me down,
Your response doesn’t need to be elaborate; it can be
and I had to abandon it. Sometimes the best tool for
downright simple, even corny, but a player who gets
the job is low tech.
into role is a player who wants to engage the game
Once you learn to sync your tempo with your
on a level other than the purely mechanical. Having
group’s, the next step is to learn how to subtly speed
you step up to the challenge validates that player’s
things up and slow things down as a means of control-
action. When I say validate, I don’t mean anything
ling tension and tone. A soundtrack helps with this
cheap or tawdry. It’s another way to use the skill of
trick. It’s not particularly effective in the middle of a
saying yes, and here’s why it’s important. Validation
convention hall, but I have speakers for my iPad and
is not about giving the players everything they want;
have started fooling around with creating gaming
it’s about responding to their wants. When you ignore
soundtracks that let me change tempo like a DJ. The
the roleplayer, that player feels cheated, awkward, or
result is fascinating and very effective (as TV, stage,
even embarrassed. This doesn’t go just for strangers at
and film directors have known for a long time).
conventions, either. Even longtime friends who know
Groups will adjust their speed of play to match the
you and (in my case) tolerate your quirks feel dejected
tempo of the music. It won’t change dramatically. A fast
when faced with validation denial. A good DM chal-
group will still run fast, just not as fast. But music is a
lenges and validates with equal measure. It’s the
great tool for creating tension and altering the mood
recipe of fun.
and rhythm between scenes of exploration, suspense,
puzzle-solving, and combat. You don’t need an iPad
to do it; a few purpose-made CDs and a simple stereo
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The issue is not only one of reactively responding;
it’s also about proactively fostering an atmosphere
that encourages roleplaying. I’ve heard many times
from players, in person and on the web, that they
don’t feel 4E fosters roleplaying. I heard those argu-
ments in the days of 3E, too. Heck, I’ve heard them
about D&D since I started playing, and competing
RPGs try to use this sentiment as a selling point. The
truth is that a system can affect roleplaying only in
very limited ways. Validating other’s engagement with
a response is a far greater promoter of roleplaying.
Other DMs Can Be Your
Greatest Teachers
I want to thank all my DMs and the DMs who did
not mind (or notice) me hovering over their shoul-
ders during games. Each session and each moment
of observation was a learning experience. Every DM
should take some time on the other side of the screen.
I know, there is often a dearth of DMs and it is hard
to find the opportunity, but pick a show, a night, or
even ask for the opportunity as a birthday gift. Who’s
going to deny a DM wanting to be a player on his or
her birthday? Maybe we should form DM clubs, like
book clubs, but instead of reading a book, all the DMs
run the same adventure and compare notes during
prep, running, and wrap-up. Hmmm. Maybe I’ll get
on that.
Now, let’s leap into the mailbag.
Managing Player Types
First, thanks for loads of useful tips. I’ve been an old school
D&D gamer since 87–mostly as a player. I’ve been running
an Eberron campaign since January with a great group of
players and have a question for you. With five players who
each are a mix of the following player types–actor, explorer,
instigator, and thinker. What is the best way to make
them all feel like their characters are special and that the
game doesn’t focus on one or two of the PCs? When I was
younger and playing, it didn’t seem as important. There
was treasure to be had and monsters to be killed and that
was enough for everyone. My players definitely want story–
which I’ve been providing. The hardest part is to make them
each feel like they have a starring role.
 –User Totendal via Wizards Community Message
You are more than welcome. It’s a real treat to be able
to provide tips and advice each month. As for your
problem, I feel for you. I think the best way to do it is
having rotating star characters. Find inspiration from
serialized television shows and comic books. Lost,
True Blood, or even Entourage can provide excellent
structures for taking a session or an encounter and
letting one or more characters shine.
For example, imagine the classic ‘awakening
colossus’ encounter. One wrong move and the mas-
sive construct lurches to life, a shambling master of
destruction. These are the kinds of encounters that
instigators love, especially if you use the classic trope
of the activation being contingent on making a wrong
move (e.g., the beginning scene of Raiders of the Lost
Ark). But it doesn’t have to end there. Having a secret
control that can be used to shut down the construct
once it’s bloodied can reward the explorer that found
save my game
it by searching or deciphering the hieroglyphics along
a section of wall. The control can be a puzzle or a
controlling homunculus-like creature with a cheeky
sense of humor, depending on whether or not you
want the explorer or the thinker or the actor to shine.
The trick is to infuse small rewards for traits
throughout encounters as well as using them to
inform overall campaign judgments. We like rewards
both big and small. Make sure that you still allow for
the normal assumptions of D&D—problems should
be solvable with skills, weapons, or ideas. Sometimes
even the most consistent instigator can miss his cue.
Problem Player, Need Solution
My problem player has a cycle: he will join a lot of games,
be enthusiastic about them all and his characters, and
contribute to the game. Then there is a long downward
spiral. The length of time differs, but after six months or a
year, he becomes noticeably disruptive before finally doing
something in-game that either causes his character to
die, be arrested, or be banned from a game, usually while
backstabbing or sabotaging the rest of the party. He drops
out of all of his games usually around that same time, then
disappears off the face of the earth for a year or so, before
announcing that he wants to start gaming again.
 –Iamarouge from the Save My Game
Wizards Community group
Wow. It sounds like this player may be having some
personal issues in his life, for which he may need
some help. Be a good friend first, and respectfully
and empathetically try to get him help if he needs
it. It may be nothing, he might just be that kind of
dude, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Be honest
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 save my game

and frank with him. Let him know how his behavior
is affecting other people and when it is unacceptable.
You don’t need to get in his grill, but don’t be a push-
over either.
That done, you must weigh the pros and cons of
his participation. He seems like a great person to play
with during the ups of the cycle and a royal pain in
the butt when he is down. Is the downside worth it?
That’s something only you and your fellow players can
answer. If it’s not, maybe he should find a new group.
Let’s say he is worth it. Let him make characters
that compliment his cycles. Have him play characters
that can easily whisk in and out of the game. Maybe
he has a magical curse that adversely affects his
personality. Maybe he is the son of the god of chaos.
Maybe his character is talented but just a tad touched.

About the Author

Stephen Radney-MacFarland caught the D&D bug at an
impressionable age. Once the content manager for the RPGA,
and a developer for the 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons
rules, he is now a freelance game designer doing work for
Wizards of the Coast and Paizo Publishing, and he is part of
a fledgling group of game commentators and game designers
called NeoGrognard. During the daylight hours, he teaches
game production classes at the International Academy of
Design and Technology of Seattle.

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Episode 30: Theme,
Plot, and World
H
Have you ever noticed how I often end the column
with a note about what I’m going to write about next
time? The truth is, that’s not there for you—it’s for me.
It’s how I keep track of the ideas that bubble to the
surface as I’m writing one month’s column. When I
sit down to write a new column, my first stop is always
the end of the last column, to remind myself what I
thought a month ago would be a good topic for next
time.
Well, it turns out that last month, I was wrong. The
idea bouncing around in my head–to talk about how
writing my latest novel has influenced my approach to
DMing–is a topic that’s only worth about a thousand
words, and most of them say nothing that’s not self-
evident. I’d be better off pointing you to page 22 of the
DMG.
So instead, here’s a collection of different thoughts
that have been simmering in my brain as I think about
my campaign and my job.
This past weekend, I ran a special make-up ses-
sion of my Aquela campaign for Antalaus, Gavin, and
Garel-Kai. Evan and A had missed our last session, and
I promised them a chance to catch up with the rest of
the group.
In the past, I have often resorted to hand-waving
when players miss sessions. Characters drop in and out
of the action as sessions go by and schedules conflict,
by Ja m e s W yat t
illustration by Wayne England
and I tell myself that it doesn’t really matter. Most of
the DMs I play with do the same thing. Dave Noonan
used to joke that the characters were there the whole
time, “achieving average results.”
This make-up session for these three characters
gave me a good excuse not to do that. I still had to do
some hand-waving, but it was in the service of a more
interesting story.
I started off by catching these players up on what
happened at the start of the last session. They had
sailed to a village near their original destination of
Haven, I explained, where they met with two NPCs.
For the purpose of the story, I assumed that the miss-
ing characters had been trailing along all this time,
just keeping their mouths shut. I explained how one
of the NPCs urged the characters to go kill a bunch of
monsters (a certain kind of monster that my son likes
to refer to as “copyright violations” because I might
have lifted their name and likeness from a certain
popular electronic form of entertainment) in order
to free the people of the nearby village to offer aid to
beleaguered Haven, and the rest of the group went off
to do that.
But then, I explained, this NPC held the three of
them back. “You three,” she said, “have a different task
you must complete.” She sent them to an underwater
cavern where these creatures had a shrine which
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housed the font of their demonic power. If the rest of
the group was to be successful in their quest, these
characters had to shut off that power source. “It must
be the three of you who accomplish this,” she said. “I
have seen it.”
Why? Because the creatures in question worshiped
Dagon, and all three of these player characters—by
coincidence, actually—had some tie to demonic forces.
Antalaus was cursed after a previous visit to a shrine
of Dagon (he chose the Cursed background). Gavin
was actually possessed by a demon (a background
he made up for himself, which I’ve designed some
mechanics to represent). And Garel-Kai was (for
reasons that are not yet clear) the target of demon-
worshipping assassins in a previous side adventure I
ran for him, Raine, and Valanri.
When the characters went into this underwater
shrine and fought the creatures and their ixitxachitl
allies, I played up the feeling of foreboding. The ixits
spoke to Antalaus in Abyssal (which he understands
because of his curse), warning him away lest he risk
another curse. Gavin’s demon started really wrestling
for control. Garel-Kai felt strange energy in the place.
When they ultimately defeated the monsters, I used
the opportunity to suggest some resolution for these
story elements. They shattered a bunch of crystals that
were channeling the Abyssal energies to the creatures
above, and I told Gavin that he thought the broken
crystal shards might offer him a way to bind the demon
that was fighting for control of his body. I told Antalaus
that he could feel the curse’s grip on him loosen, and I
had the shattering of the crystals open the mysterious
chest he’d picked up in the first session. (The question
he hasn’t asked yet is why did ­disrupting these Abyssal
energies open the chest that held his nifty new skull
mask? And is wearing the mask such a good idea?)
So I think I learned something there about
handling missing players—sometimes it creates an
opportunity for story development and making the
players who missed a session feel like they got to do
something cool, not just tag along with the others,
“achieving average results.”
Musing about that got me thinking along a differ-
ent line. That night, I posted on Twitter, “I like the
storytelling possibilities in these small sessions.” But
as I thought about it more, I started wondering, What
storytelling? Was there really a story going on there?
What is Story?
Thesis statement: When you’re creating and running
a D&D campaign, the most important work is not
charting out a plot or designing a richly detailed world.
What’s important is theme.
Corollary: When you’re creating adventures or
adapting published adventures for your campaign, it’s
less important to make them fit into some overarching
plot than it is to make them fit your theme.
What is my Aquela campaign? If you asked me to
pitch it in an elevator, I’d probably say something like,
“A group of heroes tossed together by chance tries to
navigate a world of fallen empire, magic run amok,
and rising chaos, fighting demons on the one hand
and aspiring tyrants on the other.”
It’s not a compelling pitch for a novel or a movie.
If I were reading it that way, I’d want to know more.
I’d want to know more about these characters: Who
are they? What are their arcs, their relationships,
their destinies? In the game, all of that stuff is outside
my direct control, and it’s not a single story. I have
eight players, eight characters, and that means eight
stories. That’s too much for a novel or a movie. Some
of them are related, but only insofar as they relate to
larger themes.
I’d also want to know what happens—do they rebuild
a new empire (or democratic society where people can
live in order and safety without fear of tyranny)? Do
they destroy a demon lord or primordial? Maybe even-
tually they’ll do those things, but I haven’t planned
on any of them, and at least to some extent, what they
end up doing depends on the characters. All I know is
the kinds of threats I’m going to put them up against:
demonic and elemental cultists representing the forces
of Chaos, on the one hand, and evil forces for order—
tyrants like the lich-queen—on the other. Which,
again, is all about larger themes.
I haven’t even mentioned the setting. Thirty years
ago, that was the most important thing to me—what
Aquela means. It’s a water world with all these archi-
pelagos . . . but really, it’s just like the thousands of
other water worlds out there. Does it have unique
elements? Maybe—at least some unusual ones, like
the genasi (who used to be janns) nomads who travel
the seas in their tent-ships. But what’s really impor-
tant about the campaign and the stories we’re telling
within it is not the place where these stories occur but
the themes that run through them.
I have even, in this incarnation of the campaign,
taken steps to make the setting less distinct than it
used to be, like using more traditional fantasy names
and adopting the gods of the core D&D pantheon in
place of my old pantheon. Why? Because that removes
the world as a barrier to the immersion of my players.
Did you ever read a novel where the world was a
barrier? Maybe you felt like you had to earn a master’s
degree in the history of this fictitious place to make
sense of the story you were trying to read, or you had
to keep referring to a glossary in the back to keep
track of all the made-up names for the most mundane
details of the world. “What the heck is a Quelarian
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star-fruit, and why do I care? Why doesn’t the hero just
eat a banana?”
I’ve read that book, or tried to. And I’ve run that
D&D campaign, or tried to. It turns out that my play-
ers didn’t have any more interest in the campaign than
I had in the novel. This time around, I’m letting the
world get out of the way and concentrating on the big
picture: the themes.
As I think about it now, whatever I may have said
when I started, I think my campaign has two big
themes and a smaller one.
Theme 1: Rising Chaos. This is basically the “Pri-
mordial Threat” theme described in the DMG (page
136), except that it covers all this: Tharizdun trying
to lure the Elementals away from their alliance with
Erathis, cults of Imix with the same thing in mind,
widespread cults of Dagon, and the demonic activity
of Miska the Wolf-Spider (a demon first introduced in
the 2nd Edition AD&D adventure Rod of Seven Parts).
Theme 2: The Threat of Law. Like the core D&D
world, Aquela is a world dotted with the ruins of
empire and struggling now to find its way in the wake
of the last empire’s fall. One expression of that is that
lots of people are trying to restore the rule of law in
various forms and scales, from single towns to whole
archipelagoes. Many of those people don’t have the
best interests of the governed at heart. The world is rife
with would-be tyrants, and the greatest of those is the
lich-queen, Killesti, who once ruled the archipelago
with an iron-clad, bony fist and seeks to do so again.
Theme 3: The Danger of Magic. This is a sort of
sub-theme running through the other two themes. The
great empires of Aquela’s past (by which I mean both
the historical backdrop of the world in which the game
takes place and also the past incarnations of the world
in my previous D&D games) were magocratic, ruled by
wizards. An element of that I want to play up this time
is that magic is a great power, easily abused. That idea
runs through both of my other themes. Chaos thrives
in places where magic has been unleashed—mael-
stroms of elemental energy and raw chaos left behind
by spells gone wrong. At the same time, many of the
strongest would-be tyrants that threaten the world are
wielders of magic as well, and the lich-queen’s greatest
tool for spreading her influence is the promulgation of
magic items that carry her touch.
Did I mention that the skull mask in the chest was
personally crafted by the lich-queen?
Those are the big themes in my campaign. Did
my little side-trek adventure last weekend advance a
grand, overarching plot? Not really. It advanced some
character stories a bit and in some interesting ways.
More importantly, it reinforced Theme 1, stressing the
importance of the cult of Dagon in the game.
These themes are like design principles I can
apply every time I sit down to do some work on my
game. When I pick up Tomb of Horrors in a couple of
months, as my players’ characters get near 10th level,
I’ll consider whether I can make it fit into one or more
of these themes. The most obvious approach would
be to tie Acererak to the lich-queen—or get rid of my
old lich-queen (I don’t think I’ve mentioned her to my
players yet) and replace her with Acererak entirely.
Wow—my campaign might have just gotten that much
cooler.
About the Author
James Wyatt is the Creative Manager for D&D R&D at
Wizards of the Coast. He was one of the lead designers for
4th Edition D&D and the primary author of the 4th Edition
Dungeon Master’s Guide. He also contributed to the Eberron
Campaign Setting and is the author of several Dungeons &
Dragons® novels set in the world of Eberron.
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